The interior of the Primordial Forge was not a physical space, but a conceptual one. There were no walls, only layers of violet nebulas and rivers of liquid starlight that defied gravity. In the center, the pedestal of shifting shadow hummed with the frequency of a thousand dying suns. As Yun Caos stepped onto it, the Void Reaver dissolved into his arm, merging back into his marrow.
"The process has begun," Lyra whispered, her silver hair whipping in the spiritual gale. "Yun, you must hold the image of your own existence. The Forge will try to unmake everything you are to see if the core is worth preserving. If you falter, you will become just another grain of dust in the graveyard."
Yun sat in a cross-legged position. Instantly, his translucent skin began to crack, and from the fissures, a blinding violet radiance erupted. He wasn't just cultivating; he was being re-written. His chaos bones were being compressed, their molecular structure changing from simple "dust" into "Void-Diamond"—a material that could house the laws of the universe.
Outside the conceptual bubble of the Forge, the reality of the Graveyard of Sovereigns was screaming. The sky split open, and a gargantuan eye, made of golden fire and holy geometry, stared down. The Emperor had arrived, not in person, but through a God-Tier Astral Projection.
"The anomaly is ascending," the Emperor's voice boomed, vibrating through the very souls of Shara, Meilin, and Lyra. "The Mandate forbids a second sun. Eradicate them!"
From the golden eye, thousands of "Light-Smiting Spears" rained down, each capable of wiping a city off the map.
"Protect the King!" Lyra commanded, her black eyes flashing with ancient power. She raised her hands, and a curtain of liquid mercury rose from the ground, absorbing the first wave of spears. "I will handle the temporal distortions. Shara, Meilin—the physical manifestations are yours!"
Shara slammed the Thorn of Providence into the Forge's entrance. She was no longer just a Grand Elder; the energy she had absorbed from the War Gods was now flowing through her, turning her into a literal Goddess of Nature. "By the root and the leaf, the Void shall not be touched!" she cried. Massive emerald briers, reinforced with violet marrow energy, grew at an impossible speed, forming a dome around Yun's meditating form.
Meilin was a blur of white heat. She took to the sky, her Cinder-Wraiths leaving trails of Nirvana fire that burned the golden spears before they could even hit the ground. "You want to talk about Mandates, Emperor?" Meilin roared, her voice echoing with the roar of a thousand phoenixes. "My Mandate is the man sitting in that Forge! And your fire is nothing but a guttering candle compared to my love!"
Inside the Forge, Yun was in agony. He could feel his memories being stripped away. He saw the face of the woman who raised him, the heat of the fire, the cold of the Abyss—all of it being analyzed by the Forge. "Irrelevant... Irrelevant... Delete," a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
"NO!" Yun's Will roared back. He reached out and grabbed the memories of Shara's touch and Meilin's loyalty. "These are not irrelevant. They are the coordinates of my soul!"
As he claimed his emotions, the Forge reacted. The violet light turned into a deep, solid obsidian. Yun's body was no longer translucent. It was now a terrifying, matte black that seemed to absorb all light, with his constellation-veins glowing with a cold, silver brilliance. His hair had turned white as a dead star, and his eyes... his eyes were now two swirling galaxies of absolute authority.
The astral projection of the Emperor sensed the change. The golden eye widened in genuine fear. "He is... he is becoming the Revisionist! Destroy the Forge! DESTROY IT ALL!"
A massive pillar of golden judgment descended, the Emperor putting his full spiritual weight into one final strike.
The emerald dome shattered. Lyra's mercury curtain evaporated. Shara and Meilin were thrown back, their weapons cracked and their bodies scorched. The golden light was inches away from Yun's head.
Suddenly, a hand—a hand of matte black and silver starlight—reached up and caught the pillar of judgment.
The explosion never happened. Instead, the golden light turned grey, then crumbled into ash between Yun's fingers.
Yun Caos stood up. He didn't look like a boy anymore. He looked like the end of a sentence. He looked at the golden eye in the sky, and for the first time, the Emperor felt a "Void" in his own divinity.
"Your Mandate is expired," Yun said, his voice now the ultimate law.
He didn't use a sword. He simply made a "deleting" gesture with his hand. The golden eye in the sky flickered, then vanished, leaving only the bruised, dark sky of the Graveyard.
The Ascension was complete. The King was no longer a threat; he was the Reality.