Tokyo Bay's night sky rippled with strange purple-gold hues. Lanye stood atop the Glyph Tree, his Reverse Scale Core's warm light weaving with the galaxy's glow to form a light bridge in his palm—the prophecy from Dragon-Locking Abyss's sarcophagus, "When seven-color light forms a galaxy", was unfolding.
"Look!" Xiaotao pointed at the skyline, voice trembling. "The stars are... flowing?"
They looked up. Static star trails now writhed like living things, tails of seven main stars coiling into the same spiral as the Reverse Scale Core. Eerily, each star's halo showed faint figures: a maiden in a star meteorite dress (Xiaotao), a teen hugging a stray cat (Coalball), a little girl holding a Cherry Glyph bracelet (the lost child)...
"These are our memories." Sakura's Cherry Glyph bloomed, pink light rippling in her eyes. "Glyph Cores are projecting our 'Knot of Love' into the galaxy."
Lanye's Core suddenly vibrated violently. He felt something torn from his soul—memories from three hundred years ago: Yue Kui kneeling before the berserk guardian, wiping his blood with seven-color light; Ming Yuan blocking a fatal blow with his bone ornament; A Jiu's crows shielding him, feathers brushing her face...
"So these memories never faded." Lanye's voice shook.
"They've been waiting." Su Jiuli placed her hand over his, their Cores resonating like a galaxy between them. "Waiting for all love-lit moments to gather enough power."
The galaxy's flow accelerated. Seven star tails wove into a giant net, starlight leaking through to the Glyph Tree. Each petal glowed as Su Qinghuan, Chaoyan's mother, smiled from her wheelchair: "So this is the real 'Starfall'."
"Grandma?" Chaoyan leaned in.
"I used to think 'Starfall' was the tragedy of a shattered Glyph Core," the old woman traced cherry blossoms on her wheelchair. "Now I see it's the gentlest bloom—when love is enough, every 'star' chooses to shatter itself to light others."
The Dragon-Locking Abyss altar rumbled. Lanye and Su Jiuli exchanged a glance, gripping their Core and bracelet. The stone beneath them cracked, revealing a bottomless time rift—the "contamination source" Yue Kui sealed with her Core three hundred years ago.
"Here it comes." The berserk guardian's phantom appeared, his Core now purple-gold like the galaxy. "Residual contamination consciousness will strike as the galaxy weakens."
Black mist serpentined from the rift. This contamination wasn't twisted memories but embodied "despair": it took the form of the berserk guardian with the Controller, Su Qinghuan crying "Xiaokui, don't go", even Lanye's own shadow sneering "You don't understand love".
"It's attacking our 'weaknesses'." Su Jiuli's Core glowed, shielding them. "But our weaknesses are our strongest weapons."
Lanye raised his Core, seven-color light piercing the mist. The mist shrieked like a baby's cry—not evil, but a three-hundred-year-old "help me" trapped in time.
"It's not the enemy." Lanye's voice calmed. "It's forgotten love trapped in the rift."
He released his Core, letting light flow into the mist. The mist softened, revealing a chained maiden with a light blue birthmark like Su Jiuli's, a tear mole matching Yue Kui's.
"Li?" Su Jiuli reached out trembling.
The maiden's tears fell on Su Jiuli's hand, her Core bursting with light. Memory fragments flooded out: she was Su Jiuli from three hundred years ago, leaping into the rift; Yue Kui exhausting her last glyph energy; Xiaotao attacked by cloaked figures while saving a cat; Chaoyan weeping to restore her mother's memories...
"We're all the same person." Sakura sobbed.
"No." Lanye held Su Jiuli's hand. "We're incarnations of 'love'. Every reincarnation, every memory, fuels today's galaxy."
The maiden's chains snapped. Her Core resonated with Lanye's and Su Jiuli's, forming a light bridge between past and future. At its end, Yue Kui's phantom smiled as she did three hundred years ago: "Welcome home."
As first light pierced the clouds, Tokyo Bay's Glyph Tree bloomed its brightest seven-color flowers. On each petal sat tiny silhouettes: Xiaotao and Coalball, Sakura and the lost child, A Jiu and her crows, Su Qinghuan and Chaoyan, Lanye and Su Jiuli...
"The galaxy is us." Xiaotao pointed at star trails, tears in her eyes.
"And every star shines for another." Su Jiuli placed her hand on Lanye's, their Cores merging into a tiny star in their palms.
Chaoyan's cheers rang out. She held the yellowed letter, running to her mother: "Mom! Look, the stars are making a heart for us!"
Su Qinghuan looked up. In the galaxy, the brightest star—Yue Kui's Core from three hundred years ago—fell as gentle light onto her lap.
Beyond sight, in a dark vortex, the last trace of contamination dissolved not in struggle, but as a wisp of light joining the galaxy's embrace.