Part Two
The rooftop was half destroyed.
Lea knelt beside Wen De, gripping his shoulder.
"Wen De!"
He coughed weakly.
"Still… alive…"
Barely.
His entire body felt like it had been crushed under a mountain.
The eye began forming something within its pupil.
A circle.
A formation.
Lea's expression hardened.
"It's escalating."
"Define… escalating…"
"It's going to cleanse the anomaly."
"Which is me."
"Yes."
He tried to laugh.
It hurt too much.
The formation completed.
A massive array of light expanded across the sky, covering half the city.
Symbols he couldn't comprehend rotated slowly within it.
The air itself began disintegrating.
Buildings below flickered like unstable images.
"They're not just targeting you," Lea said.
"They're isolating the region."
"Isolating for what?"
"Erasure."
That word again.
Wen De forced himself onto his elbows.
"You said Earth was cut off before."
"Yes."
"Then why now?"
"Because you reconnected it."
The array brightened.
Chunks of rooftop dissolved into dust.
Wen De felt something shift inside him.
Not power.
Memory.
Fragments flashing—
A battlefield.
The same eye above countless worlds.
His ancestor standing defiant.
A final surge of energy ripping through a network of realms.
Severing everything.
And being struck down.
"You failed," the eye's voice echoed—not through sound, but through existence itself.
The words bypassed ears and resonated directly within consciousness.
"This fragment will be corrected."
Wen De gritted his teeth.
"I'm not… a fragment."
"You are residue."
The array began descending.
Lea stood up.
Fully.
The wings behind her unfolded completely now.
Not decorative.
Not illusion.
Real.
They expanded outward in layered geometric arcs, radiating structured light.
The pressure around her weakened slightly.
The eye paused.
"Unauthorized Guardian detected."
Wen De stared at her.
"Guardian?"
She didn't look back at him.
"I was assigned to monitor Earth's seal."
"Monitor?"
"And eliminate anomalies if necessary."
He blinked slowly.
"You were going to kill me."
"Yes."
The word was steady.
No hesitation.
"Why didn't you?"
She hesitated for the first time.
"…Because you're not what they described."
The array descended further.
She lifted both hands.
Light surged outward from her wings, forming a dome over the rooftop.
The descending formation collided with her barrier.
The impact shattered nearby buildings instantly.
Glass rained down like lethal hail.
Wen De felt ribs crack under residual pressure.
Lea trembled.
She was strong.
But not strong enough.