The mirror throne shattered behind her, exploding into countless fragments of light.
But Ruoqing remained standing, cloaked in starlight, her breath calm, her heart steady. She felt it in her bones now—every version of herself, every lost echo—had aligned.
She was no longer a fractured soul.She was the axis.
Murdoch limped toward her, blood streaking down his cheek, his blade dimmed from the battle. Yet his eyes held a brilliance she hadn't seen before—not just admiration. Recognition.
"You really did it," he whispered, voice thick with awe.
Ruoqing met his gaze, then reached for him, fingers brushing against the side of his face.
"No," she said softly. "We did."
The collapsing Mirror Core began to dim. Time itself seemed to breathe again, no longer spiraling in infinite loops.
"Is it over?" she asked.
Murdoch hesitated. Then said: "This place is collapsing. But the wound in time might not heal so easily. Lysander... left cracks in the world."
As if summoned by his name, a faint echo stirred from the shards.
A whisper.
A smirk.
A shadow curling along the mirror floor.
"You think you've won?"
Lysander's broken form half-emerged from a corner of fractured time, one eye glowing faintly, the other gone.
"You think sealing the throne will erase me?" he hissed. "You rewrote this moment, yes. But I exist in all moments."
Murdoch stepped forward, raising his sword again, but Ruoqing stopped him.
"No," she said. "Let me."
She knelt beside Lysander's fading form.
For a heartbeat, silence passed between them.
Then Ruoqing leaned in, her voice like thunder wrapped in velvet.
"You no longer control my past. I own it. Every scar, every loss, every terror. They made me strong—not yours. Mine."
And she placed two fingers to his forehead.
Light pulsed once.
And Lysander vanished.
Not shattered. Not destroyed.
Erased from her timeline.
Not with hate.
But with choice.
They awoke in the ruined chapel of the mirror palace.
But it was no longer a nightmare place. The twisted architecture had melted into smooth marble. The black vines withered. The sky above was no longer an inverted void, but starlit twilight.
Ruoqing sat up slowly. Her gown was torn, her arms scraped, but her heart... her heart was quiet.
She looked to her right.
Murdoch stirred beside her, eyes blinking open.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke. They simply breathed.
"You remember everything?" he asked gently.
She nodded. "Every version. Every path. And yet... I still choose this one."
His fingers curled around hers.
"Then let's make it count."
They returned through the Gate of Memory as the first light touched the threshold.
The real world awaited—but something was different.
As they stepped onto the rain-soaked rooftop of her city, Ruoqing gasped.
Below them, time was... wrong.
Cars floated inches above the road. Buildings flickered like glitching holograms. People moved backward in brief, jerking motions before snapping forward again.
"What is this?" she whispered.
Murdoch's expression darkened.
"The fracture spread," he said. "When you erased Lysander, it didn't just fix the Mirror World. It created an absence in time itself. Something had to fill that void."
A low hum vibrated in the air.
They turned toward the sound.
And from the skyline, stepping through a crack in the sky like a slit in canvas—
A figure emerged.
Tall. Wrapped in crimson smoke.Eyes blindfolded.
Holding a silver clock, ticking backward.
Ruoqing felt the world tighten around her.
Murdoch stepped forward, weapon drawn."That's not from the Mirror Realm."
"No," the figure said calmly. "I am from what comes after. When one thread is cut, another must be knotted."
It raised a hand.
And time froze.
Birds halted midair. Raindrops hovered. Even Murdoch stood motionless.
Only Ruoqing could move.
The figure tilted its head.
"You've tampered with equilibrium," it said. "You've made a choice. And choices carry weight."
"What are you?" Ruoqing demanded.
"A Warden of Echoes. Keeper of what should have been. I am not your enemy. But I am... the consequence."
Ruoqing clenched her fists.
"Then bring it on."
The Warden didn't smile. Didn't blink.
It simply said: "Chapter One begins again."
And vanished.
Murdoch blinked.
Time resumed.
"What happened?"
Ruoqing turned to him.
And for the first time... she lied.
"Nothing important."
She smiled.
But deep in her chest, a new flame had lit.
She'd survived her past.
But now, her future was under siege.