The brownish-red wooden door carved with a cross slowly closes with a "squeak" sound as it is pushed by a slender palm.

But at the moment when the crack in the door finally closed, the time that should not have left a trace, in the blink of an eye, eroded the door from memory, leaving one mottled scratch after another and the charred black of the fire.

In the next second, it completely collapsed in front of the person who closed the door, shattering into sawdust that could not be put back together, and the hands that stretched out to push the door had stopped in a piece of debris before they could be withdrawn.

The childlike palms came together to hold a little of the scattered ashes, and as they unfolded, specks of light morphed from the debris, and they came out of their fingers in a daze, floating towards the chairs of the prayer room, scattered everywhere.

It was still the same circular prayer room, but it had come out of a state of ruins, with black-upholstered benches neatly arranged, and the smooth stone floor was painted with a brilliant pattern of thorns, olive branches and vines, surrounded by the symbol of the circular star in the center.

The symbol was emitting a faint soft light, and the firefly-sized dots of light kept breaking away from it, hovering in the room, gathering more and more, sometimes merging into a wriggling river, sometimes just outlining strange symbols, and then flying disorderly, hesitating between rising and falling.

The petite figure in a gray and white robe slowly walked through the aisle, and as he walked, the scattered points of light subconsciously retreated upward, avoiding the direction of the child's advance.

On the bench in the first row, sat another hunched back, head bowed, and the light hovered above her head, dyeing her silver hair like an ant climbing a tree trunk.

Zoya raised her head, revealing her face and recovering her full shell, and the silver strands that had been pulled into the void by an invisible force were now free to hang to the ground, dragging as she walked forward, shaking and bringing out silver phantoms, forming a gently fluttering river, or a winding snake tail.

It's just that between the shells of Zoya's head, there is no longer the nebula-like fluttering point of light, only a pure light, without any variegated silver white, like a ball of water scooped out of the long river of fate.

He walked over to the figure and quietly leaned down, observing the man in front of him.

Li Xing, at least for the soul who should have fallen from the Source Fort to the real world, that's her name.

"Grafting" merges fate, "Keeping the Secret" preserves the spirit of all people, opening the way to the real world in the moment of need, and "change" balances the consciousness of the two, achieves stability, changes the appearance of the new body, and brings about a miracle of resurrection from the dead......

Zoya reached out again and gently stroked Li Xing's face, as if touching a fragile piece of porcelain, to check for any flaws on the imitation that was about to be returned.

He withdrew his hand and turned to the platform that stood in front of the room.

Originally, it was supposed to be a tall cross, but now, the position was empty, and only an hourglass suspended in the air remained, and the sand in the upper part was almost gone.

The hourglass contained a mixture of silver and pale gold points of light, which were tightly adhered to each other, and although they still emitted an illusory light, they were closer to the substance than to the unreal.

It has been turned upside down thirteen times.

Zoya stared at the last bit of sand and gripped the ornament, which was slightly larger than his fist, but before he could turn the hourglass upside down, another palm, the size of an adult, pressed against Zoya's wrist and gradually clenched.

A humming sound came from the light: "You shouldn't ......"

The man didn't have much patience to listen to what Zoya had to say, but took the hourglass out of his hand, and though it wasn't rough, it was impatient.

Zoya tilted her head, the light under the mask alternated between light and dark, and she just looked at the other party's actions in a daze, looking very dazed.

The man who stopped Zoya was surrounded by cheerfully swirling points of light, clusters of soft light, swimming between her hair, splitting into finer debris, and then closing and fluttering again into a streamer-like spectacle, like a ball of dancing jellyfish tentacles.

Esther's right hand grasped the hourglass and held it up to her eyes, taking in its shape.

In terms of workmanship and finesse, there is no difference in shape design between this ornament and those small town handicrafts with free shipping for 20 yuan, it looks just an hourglass - two semicircular shells connected by thin diameters, and the transparency and cool feel of the material are similar to glass.

But Esther understands that, like the sand inside, it's not real.

The round planks at the top and bottom of the hourglass are depicted with the pattern of a round star, which is not cold, but emits light while making Esther feel soft and warm.

As she gripped the hourglass, she could hear a subtle hum emanating from within, and the spots of light were not purely "dead things", but similar to the rest of the lights floating in the prayer room.

Esther looked up, her calm and indifferent gaze fixed on Zoya's light, she didn't know how she should react - annoyed? Hate? Was she really angry at all this?

The feelings aroused in her heart by this were cold, more of an empty space close to pity, without any real feeling, as if she knew very well in her heart that that anger was not her will.

Esther didn't have much emotion on the surface, so she simply said, "I'm awake." ”

"You woke up too early."

"No, I think it's just the right time."

When Zoya heard this, she tried to reach out and try to regain her grip on the hourglass that had been taken from her, but Esther raised her arm, causing Zoya's grasp to fail.

This action was stalemate for a few seconds, and Esther took half a step back, widening the distance between her and Zoya, and the strange thing was that Zoya didn't say anything, but Asther clearly felt the anger, and even a little aggrieved.

"Isn't that what should be angry?" Esther sighed heavily, but instead of returning the hourglass to Zoya, she gradually increased the grip on her right hand.

Just as Esther could feel Zoya's emotions, Zoya suddenly realized what she was going to do, which was completely unexpected, and definitely not the idea that any spirit that would conform to fate should appear.

Zoya subconsciously straightened up, however, the child's body made him completely undominant in such entanglement. There was no choice but to take the simplest course of action, and he tried to pull Esther's arm:

"No! If you do—"

"Then the merging process will be interrupted, and we will still have to continue to see-saw between the divisions, right?"

Zoya seemed to have calmed down, and the anxiety in her previous tone was gone:

"If you understand, why do you do it? The moment has come to that, and it is more likely that we will all disappear. Whether it is Li Xing or Zoya, they will completely disappear under such changes, and there will be nothing left.

"In the end, what occupies our body may be the aggregate of medium light, or it may be the consciousness of the rest of existence, including the 'spiritual path' or the 'destiny incarnation'. When that happens, do you think we'll have any room to see-saw? ”

"Well......" Esther was silent for two seconds before suddenly chuckling softly, "Do you want to lie even now?" ”

"Did you forget something?" She clenched the hourglass in her hand even further, and a subtle cracking sound came from the transparent shell, "Or is His influence on you so deep that you almost fooled yourself?" ”

Zoya was silent, trying to withdraw her hand, but Esther reacted more violently than he did, as her right hand was still holding the hourglass, and Esther grabbed Zoya's wrist with her free left hand.

Now such a stalemate is really incredible, Zoya couldn't help but let out a sigh, as this sigh came out, the light points in the room violently turbulent, as if the calm water surface was broken by ripples, the points of light began to gather around the two of them, around Zoya and Esther, around Zoya and Esther, around the circle of rotation one after another.

Everything is falling apart from the original plan, and if it turns over one more time, this reciprocating process can be over.

Zoya couldn't figure out what was wrong, his face lifted and turned to himself to fabricate the facial features that belonged to "Li Xing", even if he couldn't see it, Zoya knew that everything about her was right in front of him.

"I'm not Li Xing," Esther said, her indifferent expression would have been more convincing if it weren't for the pain in her words, "and you're not Zoya. ”

The child, with its silver hair scattered and its translucent facial shell, subconsciously took a step back, shaken by Esther's words:

"What are you talking about? I'm Zoya......"

The sadness in Esther's eyes became more and more obvious, and her left hand let go of the wrist she had just grasped, but it did not let go of the hourglass, and the more obvious breaking sound sounded, at least in terms of hardness, the shell of this hourglass was more fragile than ordinary glass.

She half-crouched down, and when Zoya wanted to take a step back, she reached out to support the "child's" shoulder, seemingly supporting the other party's body, but Esther also firmly stopped Zoya's idea of continuing to retreat.

It's just that in terms of words, Esther is not as polite as her movements: "Then I'll say it again, you're not Zoya." ”

Feeling the tremor coming from her palm, Esther showed a gentle smile: "You've been deceived for a long time, haven't you?" It's like I've been deceived for a long time. ”

"How could I not be ......" The light under Zoya's mask swung out in circles and circles.

Esther let out a few short chuckles, "Haha, none of us would have thought of such a thing until we came into contact with those memories.

But he left a flaw all too clear...... No, given His power, that might be a hint for me. ”

She clenched her right hand suddenly, and in the next second, silver streams of light and golden filaments flew out of Esther's palm.

"That's not 'me' memory at all."

The moment the hourglass shattered completely, the same clear sound of shattering came from Esther and Zoya's bodies. (End of chapter)