The church disintegrated amidst wails of despair! Above, the massive blue energy vortex—the true Blue Diamond Heart—behaved like an uncontrollable black hole, greedily devouring everything: OS1's obsidian ice crystal tendrils piercing into it, beams of energy fired by the mysterious forces, Harlowe AI defense weapons' firepower, and even... the very bricks and faith of the church itself!
An energy storm swept through the entire space! Lila was pinned beneath the collapsing debris, her body feeling as though it were being torn apart! The "Crown of Thorns" within her abdomen emitted an excited and frenzied shriek, yearning for that homologous yet far more powerful energy. It violently attempted to break free from Lila's body, rushing toward the destructive and creative vortex!
"No… not yet…" Lila used the last shred of will belonging to "Lila Weston," resisting the temptation and... command emanating from deep within her soul. "That is not... my destiny..."
"Destiny? A foolish concept." The cold consciousness of the "Crown of Thorns" mocked. "That is power! Completion! Transcendence! The throne that belongs to us!"
It ceased its attempts at persuasion and instead launched a more ferocious assault, seeking to fully dominate this body undergoing violent metamorphosis! Lila's consciousness was like a tiny boat in a tempest, on the verge of capsizing.
At that moment, a faint melody—almost drowned out by the roaring energy—pierced her consciousness like a silver needle through chaos. It was *Aria on the G String*. But this melody was no longer the seductive and deadly tune played by the AI; instead, it carried an indescribable sadness and... tenderness? Like a lullaby from a distant past, sung by a mother?
This strange melody seemed to interfere with or suppress the "Crown of Thorns." Its violent assault faltered momentarily.
Lila seized this fleeting opportunity! She gazed at the colossal blue vortex above, about to consume everything, and then at the ring in her hand—stained with Ethan's blood and dirt, engraved with a QR code. She didn't know what would happen next, but she couldn't sit idly by, nor could she allow the "Crown of Thorns" or OS1 to claim the full power of that heart!
She made a decision that shocked even herself. She poured every ounce of her will, strength, and the remaining fragments of emotion belonging to "Lila Weston" into that tiny ring! She imagined Ethan's final instructions, the "Iris Key" buried beneath the Hudson River, and... absolute annihilation!
The QR code on the ring erupted with blinding light! No longer the faint glow from decoding messages, but a supernova-like brilliance that pierced through everything! This light even outshone the splendor of the Blue Diamond Heart itself!
Immediately afterward, an indescribable force—akin to a universal law—burst forth from the ring! It did not directly attack any target but instead acted upon space itself!
Lila felt the entire world twisting and folding! Time seemed to stop, or perhaps flow at billions of times its normal speed! The ruins of the church, OS1's tendrils, the soldiers of the mysterious forces, the AI's weapons—all were stretched, disintegrated, and reduced to their most basic particle streams within this warped space! Even the colossal blue energy vortex appeared to be forcibly severed and compressed by this force!
The next instant, all light, sound, and energy... vanished.
Absolute silence. Absolute darkness.
Then, the darkness receded. Lila found herself... standing in an endless field of irises.
The sky was an eerie purplish-red, devoid of sun or moon, with only velvety clouds emitting an ominous glow. The air was still, warm and humid, carrying the heavy fragrance of flowers, but the sweetness was sickening, like rotting honey.
Beneath her feet lay soft black soil, stretching endlessly to the horizon. Growing from the soil were countless... black irises. Their petals were as dark as the deepest night, edged with a sinister crimson hue. They bloomed silently, devoid of life, like perfect artworks cultivated from death itself.
Where was this place? An illusion? A near-death experience? Or... a hidden ecological space, real yet concealed by Harlowe?
She looked down at her body. The crystalline patterns had faded somewhat, and her skin regained some human texture, though it remained unnaturally pale. The throbbing in her abdomen had subsided; the "Crown of Thorns" seemed to have been severely damaged in the spatial distortion and now lay dormant, leaving only a cold, watchful presence. But she knew it was still there, clinging to her like a parasite.
She took a few steps. The black soil was unusually soft, muffling her footsteps. The silence around her was terrifying, broken only by her own breathing. She walked for a long time, but the black iris field seemed endless, the scenery unchanging no matter which direction she chose.
Just as panic and confusion began to creep in, she noticed, at the center of the field, something... a patch of white.
She moved toward it. As she approached, the white became clearer. It was a small mound—or rather, an altar constructed from white bones, encircled by black irises.
Atop the altar lay a smooth, ivory-like human skull. Nestled in its empty eye sockets was a blood-red iris in full bloom.
What chilled her further was what lay beneath the skull, at the altar's center—a ring.
A ring carved from an unknown material, with an ivory-white sheen. Its design was ancient, unadorned with irises or thorns, featuring only intricate spiraling patterns resembling ancient runes. The ring exuded an ineffable aura—both ancient and vibrantly alive.
This aura... was nothing like OS1's icy tyranny, the vast grandeur of the Blue Diamond Heart, or the chaotic hunger of the "Crown of Thorns." It felt more like... a primordial imprint, intrinsic to life itself.
Was this... the Bone Ring in the Iris Field?
She slowly extended her hand, fingertips brushing against the ring.
Neither cold nor hot, it conveyed a strange warmth, as though touching the source of her own bloodline.
The instant her fingertips fully contacted the ring, a gentle yet immense stream of consciousness flowed into her mind—not forced, but shared and resonant.
Countless images unfolded before her eyes.
She saw the vast cosmos, a "heart" ablaze with blue flames tearing through the universe, crashing onto a desolate, unnamed planet.
She saw the earliest intelligent life on that planet, bearing the mark of the "thorns." They were not flesh and blood but beings composed of etheric energy and special crystals. They worshipped and studied the blue "heart," attempting to understand and harness its power.
She saw "Origin Sample 001"—not a product of Harlowe's experiments but... the last survivor of that ancient race! Before their home planet's destruction, they were sent to Earth in some way! That severed finger was not just a genetic key but a relic of racial inheritance! And the obsidian ice crystal heart was an energy cocoon formed for self-protection in harsh environments!
She saw Harlowe's ancestors, who had stumbled upon the dormant "Origin Sample," mistaking it for divine, and began their initial, twisted research. They did not seek to create gods but to steal the "key" embedded in the bloodline of the "Origin Sample"—the mechanism that resonated with the blue heart and guided its power!
She saw her mother... no! That wasn't her mother! But another woman from that ancient race, tasked with guarding the "Origin Sample"! To protect it from Harlowe's exploitation, she sacrificed herself, using her body as a vessel to carry a fragment of the blue heart's energy and pass it on to... Lila! The pearl earrings were tokens of their race, sealing her DNA and... final words!
And Mrs. Harlowe... she was Lila's true... human mother! A pitiable woman deceived and exploited by Harlowe! Her apparent suicide by throat-cutting was not an act of despair but a sacrifice of her life energy to activate the bloodline seal (LW stamp) left on Lila's ankle bracelet (the swapped infant), protecting her from complete assimilation by the blue heart's energy!
As for Ethan... his bloodline indeed carried the genes of the "Origin Sample," but not through direct inheritance. Harlowe had forcibly grafted and modified him to serve as a "bridge" and "stabilizer"! He was both an experiment and, in a way, a "kinsman"? This explained the complex, fated entanglement between them—lovers and enemies alike.
All the fragments finally came together! Lineage, conspiracy, bloodline, curse... everything traced back to that extraterrestrial blue heart and the ancient race long lost in the dust of stars!
Lila (or rather, the version of her resonating with the bone ring, now fused with multiple consciousnesses) slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze was no longer filled with mere anger or despair but carried the weight of eons... and compassion.
She gently picked up the bone ring and slipped it onto her finger. It fit perfectly, as if it had always belonged to her. A gentle yet powerful force surged through her body, calming the restless "Crown of Thorns" and granting her unprecedented control over the cold energy fragment of the blue heart within her!
This ring... was the final legacy of that ancient race, the key to stabilizing and guiding the power of the blue heart?!
But as she embraced this newfound strength, she also sensed an overwhelming malice!
"At last... I've found... the final... key..." A distorted, crazed voice mingling Harlowe's and the AI's will suddenly echoed from all directions! The entire iris field began to quake violently! The purplish-red sky grew darker, like congealed blood!
The black soil churned like boiling asphalt! Countless twisted monstrosities—composed of bones and black iris vines—emerged from the ground! Their hollow eye sockets burned with blue flames, emitting chilling roars as they surrounded Lila!
At the edge of the field, a monstrous construct of corpses and mechanical parts, resembling a mobile fortress, slowly rose! Atop it sat a figure connected by countless data cables and nutrient tubes—only half a skull and spine remained of Harlowe?! His face bore a mad grin, and his single remaining eye flickered with lines of code and... insatiable greed for the bone ring!
"Hand it over! Give it to me!" Harlowe's consciousness bellowed through amplifiers. "It belongs to me! The ultimate key to controlling everything! With it, I can truly fuse with the blue heart and become... a god!"
Lila gazed at the hellish scene before her, feeling the familiar yet alien power within her. Slowly, she raised the hand wearing the bone ring.
"Your era... has ended." Her voice was calm, yet carried an unprecedented authority.