Atop the ruined city wall, a black severed finger was pinned firmly to the surface of a stone by Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.
"It seemed the Key of Doors had gotten serious this time... To launch an attack on this scale across the River of Time, it must have paid a considerable price." The severed finger's voice drifted out leisurely. As it watched the Spacetime Vortex gradually dissipate in the distance, the corner of the mouth on its fingertip curled upward slightly. "Is it over...?"
A Willow Branch covered in eyeballs stretched out from the Iridescent Mist and coiled around Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi's hilt. Just as it was about to pull the blade free, a long spear came whistling in from afar and instantly blasted the Willow Branch into scraps!
The spearhead pierced through the bloody mist and struck precisely beside the severed finger. It turned slightly toward the direction from which the spear had come, seemingly displeased.
Through the dust crackling with arcs of electricity, a figure clad in blood-red armor and a ragged young man slowly approached.
The instant the severed finger saw the young man, it froze before speaking in astonishment.
"You? Why aren't you dead yet?!"
"The Key of Doors failed to kill me... That surprised you, didn't it?" Lin Qiye's expression was utterly calm.
The surface of the severed finger faced Lin Qiye, and it said nothing more. Logically speaking, after the Key of Doors had paid such a tremendous price, it should have completely erased Lin Qiye... It did not know where things had gone wrong.
But Lin Qiye being alive meant it had fallen into danger once more.
"How is that possible... How did you survive?" Facing Lin Qiye, the severed finger seemed to notice a subtle change in him, and its voice was filled with disbelief. "You