Super God Academy: Kabuto

As the light faded, Lin Yu knelt on one knee, overwhelmed by a long-forgotten weakness and excruciating pain. He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood, which fell into the void with a corrosive hiss.

"To be injured to this extent... it's been a long time."

Ahead, the End of the Bud floats silently. The petals, which once shone with magnificent brilliance, are now stained with an ominous darkness at their edges—the "price" for his countless reversals of time.

"Old friend, you saved me again." Lin Yu looked at it, his eyes swirling with emotions, which finally turned into a sigh. "Help me one last time... let me see why they died."

The final bloom shines with great brilliance!

An image suddenly crashed into his consciousness:

In a radiant river that carries the flow of all time, a thin, dark black line is flowing upstream. It meanders like a living thing, piercing through layers of spacetime barriers, precisely flowing towards three closely intertwined points of light—the imprints of He Xi, Keisha, and Qi Lin.

The instant the black line touched it—

He Xi and Keisha are like an erased sketch, fading away, dissipating, and returning to nothingness.

Qi Lin's light flickered violently, but instead of disappearing, it transformed into a pure sphere of light, which was pulled into the depths of the long river by an unknown gravitational force...

Lin Yu's gaze followed the black line.

The scene rapidly zooms out and flashes back! Passing through chaotic spacetime light and shadow, crossing shattered dimensional barriers, finally—

It was frozen in the deepest part of the abyss.

An altar covered in gray-white runes. Before the altar stood a terrifying being that had just opened its blood-red eyes and uttered, "Insects, die."

The screen then shattered.

Lin Yu stood frozen in place, numb even to the excruciating pain.

"Was it...myself?" His voice was hoarse. "Was it the black line I created?"

An even more terrifying paradox gripped his throat: "Did the 'future' I saw cause the 'present'... or is the 'present' me creating that 'future'?"

Logic completely fails before the chaos of space and time. Self-blame, anger, and a sense of powerlessness at being manipulated by fate overwhelm the senses.

"Hahaha... It was all my fault... that I ruined them..."

He laughed maniacally, but there was no joy, only a complete tendency towards self-destruction. Blood tears mingled with black blood streamed down his face.

Just as consciousness was about to be devoured by madness—

That faintly glowing final pistil bloomed one last time with a warm and resolute halo.

It swept away the chaos and forcefully suppressed his collapsing sanity.

A clear and gentle thought, like a whisper of farewell, settled directly into his heart:

I can save them.

Lin Yu suddenly looked at it. The three tiny flower buds in the heart swayed, each one entangled in black mist, as if they would wither away completely at any moment.

His lips trembled.

The phrase "help me," which I had relied on countless times, was stuck in my throat.

He can no longer speak. He can no longer sacrifice it.

Sensing his resolute silence, the End's Bud sent a second thought, carrying an all-knowing calm:

[He cannot move. As long as he doesn't disturb the seal at its deepest point, he will be fine.]

next moment--

The End of the Bloom burst forth with the most intense and resolute light since its birth!

It began to disintegrate. Petals peeled away, transforming into pure quicksand of light, gently and irresistibly enveloping Lin Yu, pulling him out of the spatial rift, and tossing him toward familiar coordinates—

The known universe.

In the last vestige of consciousness, Lin Yu "saw":

The remaining essence of the final stamen plunged headlong into the radiant river.

Going against the current.

It precisely struck the black line that had eroded the past.

There was no explosion, no loud noise.

Only the ultimate fusion, neutralization, and annihilation of light and darkness...

Ultimately, they all returned to nothingness.

Only a faint, pure, residual ray of light drifted quietly down along the river in the direction of time.

Like a sigh.

It gently merged into the point of light that represented He Xi.

In the void, Lin Yu slowly raised his hand, and the last bit of light from the End's Core in his palm dissipated with the wind, leaving no trace.

That companion who had been by his side since birth, saved him countless times, bore all his joys and sorrows, and ultimately stained himself black and burned himself out for him—

Disappeared.

Forever.

Lin stood there for a long time, silent as a statue.

No tears, no screams.

Only deep within the eyes, something utterly died, and then something else appeared—

In the absolute silence of the ashes, coldly and clearly... it is reignited.

He lost his last "crutch".

It also severed the "poison blade" from the future.

just now.

He must, and can only, forge a completely new path.

There is no wind in the void, but a more primal "emptiness" flows slowly, like the paused breath of time itself.

Lingyue's arrival came without warning; she was a ray of clear light extracted from this void. The first thing she saw was the black figure with his back to her—he slightly raised his hand, palm up, as if catching non-existent raindrops, or perhaps trying to grasp a wisp of light that had long since vanished.

"You're back?" Her voice was lighter than a feather, as if afraid of disturbing the heavy silence.

Lin Yu, dressed in black, turned around. His appearance was perfectly intact, not even the hem of his clothes was disheveled. But his eyes, the eyes that had once reflected the birth and death of stars, now seemed to be covered by the dust of eternal night, leaving only an unfathomable weariness.

"Hmm," he replied, his lips twitching slightly. It wasn't exactly a smile, but more like an attempt to confirm that he could still make "expressions."

Lingyue didn't approach, but stood quietly a few steps away, her gaze carefully tracing his features. Her eyes were clear and bright, as if they could reflect the contours of his soul. "Tell me?" she asked, her tone as calm as if she were asking if the starlight was still the same, yet it opened a sliver of light for him.

The silence continues, only nothingness surges silently.

Finally, Lin Yu's gaze returned to his empty palm, his voice low and hoarse, almost swallowed by the surrounding "silence":

"...It's gone."

Lingyue's fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly. No further questions were needed. The "it" that he mentioned with such an expression—in this desolate land belonging to their long memories—there was only one thing. The moonlight in her eyes seemed to dim for a moment, then transformed into a gentler, more encompassing light.

She didn't say anything, but simply took a step forward, stretched out her arms, and gave him a very light and quick hug.

The embrace was as fleeting as an illusion. There was no force, no lingering affection, just a brief connection between existences. It was a tacit understanding and comprehension accumulated across countless eons, more powerful than any language.

"And me." She whispered three words in his ear, the syllables falling softly before she let go.

Lin Yu was stunned. That faint warmth pierced through his seemingly frozen senses, stirring an almost imperceptible ripple in the still lake of his heart. He looked at her, his eyes churning with complex emotions.

Lingyue gracefully stepped back half a step, as if the warmth and comfort she had just felt had never happened. She even twirled lightly in front of him, the hem of her new dress shimmering with a dreamlike glow, a bright and cheerful smile blooming on her face, deliberately trying to defy the endless emptiness around them and the heavy sorrow emanating from him: "Look, this is the inspiration I had in 'The Glazed Star Sea.' This outfit, isn't it nice?"

That smile was too dazzling, too vibrant, a stark contrast to the desolation in his heart. Lin Yu gazed at her, as if slightly scorched by this sudden light, a corner of the icy resolve in his eyes softening. He took the step she offered and nodded gently.

"Yes, it looks good."

The conversation paused again. But the previous deathly silence had been broken; the air was no longer thick with the stagnation of despair, but rather filled with a subtle, shared tranquility. Lingyue's presence and the glimmer of life she brought were like a tiny crack carved into an impenetrable wall.

Lin Yu's gaze passed over her, casting it into the depths of nothingness. His eyes seemed to pierce through the barriers of countless worlds, locking firmly onto a specific coordinate—the Winter Cherry Blossom Small World, and onto the "self" that carried half of his original essence and was experiencing joys and sorrows.

Lingyue also quieted down, no longer speaking, but simply gazing silently in the direction of his gaze. She might not be able to clearly "see" the scene on the other side, but she could clearly sense the complete focus and attachment in his heart. She stayed by his side like this, just as she had done countless times before—watching over him when he looked back on time, appearing when he was wounded, and accompanying him when he was silent.