Chapter 33 - Ten Thousand Ghosts
She called herself Lyra Renn.
My mother's daughter.
My sister.
I had never heard her name.
Fen had.
His face told me that before he spoke.
"Mara thought Lyra died during the purge."
Lyra laughed from the golden chariot.
"Mara was wrong about many things."
Lord Sen offered peace.
Mira returned to Golden Court.
I surrendered the lock fragment.
Iron Lotus lived.
Easy choice.
Which meant it was probably poison.
My system said nothing.
That was worse.
Lyra lifted one hand.
The battlefield filled with ghosts.
Ten thousand dead cultivators appeared behind the Golden Court army.
Not illusions.
Soul contracts.
Mira went pale.
"Father, what did you do?"
Lord Sen looked ashamed.
Lyra answered.
"He borrowed power."
Every ghost carried a broken-halo brand.
Heavenbreakers.
Captured across centuries.
Lyra had been using Golden Court to collect the dead rebellion.
"Why?" I shouted.
She looked almost offended.
"To finish Mother's work."
The ghosts raised their heads.
The red gate beneath Iron Lotus answered.
It began opening again.
Not from inside.
From them.
Fen whispered, "She's using the souls as keys."
Lyra smiled.
"You can keep your fragment, Kai. I brought ten thousand others."
The war had never been about Mira.
May you like
It was about the gate.
