The Execution Platform Five Hundred Years Ago and the Imaginary Tree Five Hundred Years Later: Two Scenes Closed Together

"And the result?" A'Dai asked.

"The result was that the Tree accounted for it." Huo Yuhao pointed at the Light Screen, his gaze sharp. "But not in the way Otto thought. He saw the resonance succeed. He saw Kallen escape execution. He saw the New World Line wash over the Old World. What he didn't see was that the Tree had marked that scene from five hundred years ago as 'pending correction' the moment the resonance began. Kallen's death hadn't disappeared. It had been delayed until the Tree calculated that scene back into its original place."

"The execution scene... flowing in sync..." Ye Yinzhu repeated softly, his fingers going still on the strings. "So while Otto was changing it, it was changing him too. That place where she died five hundred years ago kept dragging him toward it. The more he burned away, the closer he came to the day Kallen died. In the end, he wasn't changing history at all. He had made himself part of it—the part about to be overwritten."

"He became a variable history reclaimed," Tang San said. "That's why he was erased at the level of causality. It wasn't that the world hated him. The world had to pull him out from between 'past' and 'present.' Otherwise, the resonance between the two times would have continued. The Tree wouldn't leave a string vibrating forever. It would cut it. And Otto was that string."

The images suddenly drew closer. On the left, Otto was no more than the faintest outline. On the right, Kallen grew clearer and clearer. A drop of blood clung to her lashes, poised to fall. The instant Otto vanished completely, the drop finally fell. It struck the ground and scattered into a fine red spray. At that same moment, every light of