"Nearby." Jiu Jia Yi's voice steadied, but the wariness in his eyes remained. "We have to find it and figure out what it is."
Just then, a blurred figure appeared in the fog ahead. It seemed to take shape, and a voice grew clearer with it. Rough and deep, it sounded as though it came from beneath the earth.
"You've finally arrived."
Yan Zhi and Jiu Jia Yi turned together. The voice bore down on them, as though a powerful force were watching them both. The figure sharpened into the vague outline of a humanoid creature, but its face held no expression at all, like a stone carving no one could read.
"Who are you?" Yan Zhi asked instinctively, though she knew they had little room to negotiate.
"You do not belong here," the creature said in a low, ancient voice. "You should never have come. You were led here only to become part of all this."
"What... do you want us to become?" Jiu Jia Yi asked quietly, his eyes sharp with caution.
The figure approached them slowly. Its steps were measured, yet the air seemed to tremble with each one. "The 'memories' of all this," it said, its voice sounding older still. "Part of the endless cycle."
Yan Zhi jolted at those words. Unease flashed through her mind, as though something were resonating with her thoughts.
"An endless cycle?" she couldn't help asking.
"Yes," the creature said, its voice still low. "You have entered the heart of the endless cycle. Every fragment here is linked to countless moments in the past. You think you can control it, but you have always been destined to play your part. Everyone who comes here becomes part of the 'past,' a vessel for our memories."
Yan Zhi stared at the creature, her face turning pale. Deep inside, a suffocating dread gripped her, as though the whole world were warning her: she did not belong here.
"A vessel for memories?" she repeated, almost to herself. "What do you want?"
The creature did not answer at once. Instead, it chuckled, the sound steeped in mockery and desolation. "Your arrival was no accident. You might even call it fate. Everyone who tries to escape is bound by this chain again, until they become part of it—until they become an eternal presence within this 'cycle.'"
Yan Zhi's heart pounded. Something seemed to churn inside her, leaving her barely able to breathe. She gripped her short blade and felt that long-absent power surge through her hand. But she knew it was not meant to fight the being before her. It was meant to help her find the path she was supposed to take.
"We... will not become part of you," she said coldly, her voice firm as iron.
Jiu Jia Yi turned to her, resolve and trust filling his eyes. He said nothing, only nodded and tightened his grip on her hand.
They stood in the fog before the indescribable creature, but in that moment, they cast aside the fear and unease deep within them.
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