The chamber trembled as the golem's fist slammed into the ground, fracturing the ancient flagstones. Li Tian rolled aside, his breath ragged, the Codex's corruption pulsing like a second heartbeat in his veins. Across the cavernous room, the stone guardian loomed—twelve feet of jagged obsidian and primal energy, its body etched with glowing runes that pulsed like arteries. Each step it took sent shockwaves through the air, and its hollow eyes burned with the Hollow Star's baleful light.
"Flank it!" Xia shouted, her healing qi already knitting a gash on Renshu's arm.
"Easier said!" Jin shot back, daggers skidding off the golem's leg as it pivoted, swatting him into a pillar.
Li Tian's mind raced. The golem's runes flared brighter with each strike they landed, its primal energy absorbing their attacks. *It's feeding off us,* he realized. The relics he carried—the Veil of Eclipse and the Sundial Key—hummed in his pack, but the Codex's corruption whispered a darker solution.
"Fall back!" Li Tian barked, channeling qi into his blade. The weapon glowed crimson, its edge trembling with unstable energy.
The golem roared, its voice a landslide given sound, and charged.
---
**The Dance of Destruction**
Li Tian met the charge head-on. His blade clashed against the golem's fist, the impact reverberating up his arms. The Veil of Eclipse billowed around him, bending the guardian's next strike harmlessly aside. But the corruption in his veins writhed, clouding his vision with black static.
*"Use me,"* the Hollow Star crooned. *"I am the key."*
Xia's vines lashed around the golem's ankles, buying Li Tian a heartbeat. He lunged, aiming for a rune on its chest. The blade struck true—but the rune flared, absorbing the blow.
"The runes aren't weak points—they're conduits!" Old Guo called from the sidelines, his staff raised in a defensive barrier. "You're powering it!"
The golem backhanded Li Tian into a wall. Stone cracked. Blood filled his mouth.
---
**The Alchemist's Gambit**
Coughing, Li Tian fumbled for his alchemy pouch. His fingers closed around a vial of Spiritmend sap—stolen from the Hermit's Vale. The corruption recoiled at its touch.
"Distract it!" he shouted, hurling the vial to Xia.
She caught it, understanding flashing in her eyes. Dodging the golem's stomp, she doused her vines in the sap and lashed them around the guardian's limbs. The primal energy sputtered, the runes dimming as the sap's purifying essence clashed with their power.
"Now!" Xia screamed.
Li Tian activated the Sundial Key. The relic's light sliced through the chamber, freezing the golem mid-strike. But the hold wouldn't last—the Key's energy drained visibly, its edges blackening.
"The core!" Bo shouted, his qi-sight piercing the golem's chest. "Beneath the central rune!"
Li Tian leapt, his corrupted arm ablaze with black fire. The Codex's power tore through the rune, revealing a pulsating crystal heart. He gripped it—
The golem's will flooded his mind.
---
**The Guardian's Truth**
Visions engulfed him: the Magic Emperor in his prime, weeping as he forged the golem from his oldest friend's corpse. *"Guard the truth,"* the Emperor begged. *"Even from me."*
The Hollow Star's laughter echoed through memory. *"You cannot outrun grief, brother."*
Li Tian wrenched the core free.
The golem crumbled, its final roar a mournful echo.
---
**The Inner Chamber**
Silence fell. The chamber's far wall split, revealing an archway veiled in starlight. Beyond lay a circular room, its walls lined with murals of the Magic Emperor's triumphs and failures. At its center hovered a crown of frozen flames—the artifact from Li Tian's visions.
But as the group approached, the corruption in Li Tian spiked. His left eye turned fully black, and the Hollow Star's voice became his own:
*"At last… my vessel."*
---