Stardust wove itself into a cocoon within the gravitational vortex, while Bai Mei's consciousness reassembled in a quantum state.
Every mote of stardust carried fragments of a civilization's epic. When the cocoon cracked under the shockwaves from the Imaginary Well, what he saw was not a newborn universe, but a Tombstone Star Sector built from Faded Tattoo—a vast Klein Bottle Totem formed from the remains of every civilization pruned by the Ancient Existence.
"Primal contamination detected. Initiating purification protocol." The imprint of the Star-Patterned Mask appeared on the cocoon's inner wall. Bai Mei's stardust uncontrollably coalesced into the shape of a scythe. "Error code γ-00000. Cease resistance immediately."
The instant the blade swung toward the cocoon, the Faded Tattoo suddenly came alive. A surviving fleet from some civilization burst out of the totem, its gunfire precisely shattering the Star-Patterned Mask's imprint. "We are the Root Liberation Front... We've come to carry on your legacy."
The fleet commander removed her helmet, revealing a face where machinery and flesh were fused together. She was none other than Mirror Horikita of the Seventh Universe.
Blue rose juice flowed through her mechanical eye. In her hand, she held half a vine belonging to the Lantern Keeper. "We found this at the bottom of the Imaginary Well... It carries Horikita Suzune's bloodline frequency."
The vine pierced the cocoon of stardust. Inside, an image appeared within the Hawking Radiation: Horikita's carbonized body had not perished. Instead, the Ancient Existence had transformed it into a living vessel for the "Primal Seed."
New branches of the universe continually grew from her spine, each one wrapped in the Star-Patterned Mask's neural network.
"She's using her own suffering to delay the Primal Seed's revival," Mirror Horikita said, connecting her mechanical arm to the cocoon's data stream. "But the price is... slowly losing her humanity."
Bai Mei's scythe of stardust suddenly plunged backward into his own chest. Quantum blood seeped into the cracks in the cocoon. "Then let the Primal Seed taste... what it's like to be devoured by its own host."
The cocoon of stardust plunged into the heart of the Tombstone Star Sector, becoming quantum-entangled with the Faded Tattoo.
Horikita's spinal branches suddenly surged in length, piercing the Klein Bottle Totem. Countless eyes split open across their surfaces, each reflecting the moment Bai Mei was annihilated on a different timeline.
"You've finally come," all the eyes whispered in unison, their voices a mixture of Horikita's frequency and that of the Ancient Existence. "I've been waiting for you... to become the roots of a new bonsai."
Bai Mei's scythe pierced the main branch, yet it was like cleaving a watery mirror—the branch's interior was a sea of consciousness where Horikita was imprisoned.
Her quantum form curled up in a coral thicket, while the roots of the Star-Patterned Mask devoured her memories.
"Kill me..." Her phantom gripped the blade. "While I can still remember... the cry you gave when you were born..."
The instant the scythe fell, all the civilizations' remains in the Tombstone Star Sector screamed at once. The Faded Tattoo erupted in a bloody glow, and the Root Liberation Front's fleet evaporated in the blinding light.
Mirror Horikita's mechanical eye exploded. She injected blue rose juice into the flagship's engines. "Go... Sow the last..."
Bai Mei's Stardust Body disintegrated in the sea of consciousness, every mote carrying a fragment of Horikita's memories. The Ancient Existence's roar shook the dimensions. "You dare use my tool... to betray me!"
"A tool?" Bai Mei's remaining consciousness laughed wildly amid the quantum storm. "Haven't you realized... that you're also a puppet of the Primal Seed?"
Horikita's spinal branches suddenly carbonized, and the Star-Patterned Mask's neural network contracted like a web exposed to flame.
The Tombstone Star Sector began to collapse. The Faded Tattoo flowed backward into the cocoon, forging it into a throbbing Star Core.
Three months later, a human face appeared in relief on the surface of the newborn universe's Star Core. The remnants of the Root Liberation Front inscribed the Charter of Freedom on the nebula's outer membrane; Horikita's quantum blood seeped from every stroke.
Mirror Horikita's mechanical body had become one with the Star Core. Her mechanical eye scanned the terrifying data: an embryonic consciousness of the Ancient Existence lay dormant inside the Star Core, and Bai Mei's stardust was its growth medium.
"Activate the Wither Protocol." She injected blue rose juice into the reactor. "We will never allow... a second Primal Seed to be born."
The instant the juice corroded the Star Core's outer membrane, Bai Mei's sigh came from inside the cocoon. "Don't you understand yet? True freedom... begins with accepting your chains."
The Star Core split open, revealing what lay within: Bai Mei's Quantum Body enveloped the Ancient Existence's embryo, the two curled up like twins in the womb. Horikita's spinal branches thrust out from the embryo's back, blooming into a Lightless Rose.
The remains of the Imaginary Well reassembled at the edge of the nebula, forming a circular forest of tombstones. The same inscription was carved into each one:
"Here lie all the corpses deemed 'correct,'
while error... remains forever untamed."
Mirror Horikita's mechanical arm brushed across the inscription. The blue rose juice suddenly crystallized into the shape of a key. A quantum message from Bai Mei came from deep within the Star Core:
"When you are ready to face the ultimate truth,
use this key to open the cocoon...
or seal away your fear forever."
At the end of the sea of stars, the Lantern Keeper's vine pierced the dimensions and wrapped around an unmarked wildflower seed. This time, what shimmered across its petals was no longer fluorescent light, but the sheen of the most primitive chlorophyll.
Before you continue