The stone golem's collapse sent tremors rippling through the chamber, its obsidian body disintegrating into a mound of smoldering rubble. Li Tian staggered back, his corrupted arm still crackling with residual energy from the final strike. Xia rushed to his side, her healing qi already flaring to life as she assessed the jagged burns lacing his skin.
"Your meridians are fraying," she murmured, her voice tight. "If you channel that corruption again—"
"It's done," Li Tian interrupted, though his trembling hands betrayed him. Across the chamber, Jin and Renshu leaned against cracked pillars, their faces streaked with soot and blood. Bo crouched beside Old Guo, the elder's breathing labored but steady. The battle had left its mark on them all.
The air still hummed with primal energy, the remnants of the golem's power coalescing into faint, glowing wisps that drifted toward the chamber's far wall. There, the rubble shifted, revealing a massive stone door etched with the Magic Emperor's serpent-and-tower sigil. At its center lay a hollow recess, shaped like the crystalline heart Li Tian had torn from the golem's chest.
"The key," Old Guo rasped, leaning heavily on his staff. "The core… it must be the key."
Li Tian approached the door, the golem's heart pulsating faintly in his grip. As he pressed it into the recess, the stone groaned. Runes flared to life, spiraling outward in concentric rings of gold and crimson. The door split down the middle, its halves grinding open to unleash a gust of stale, ancient air.
Beyond lay the inner chamber.
---
**The Sanctum's Breath**
The room was a perfect sphere, its walls lined with mosaics depicting the Magic Emperor's rise and fall. At its center hovered the Primal Core—a teardrop-shaped crystal suspended in midair, its facets refracting light into spectral patterns that danced across the domed ceiling. The core pulsed rhythmically, each beat resonating with the primal energy that had animated the golem.
"It's… alive," Bo whispered, his qi-sight widening. "It's *breathing*."
Jin edged closer, daggers drawn. "Smells like a trap."
Old Guo traced the murals with reverence. "Here—the Emperor forging the first Primal Core from the heart of a dying star. And here…" His finger paused on a scene of devastation. "The Hollow Star's birth. His ambition made manifest… and his downfall."
Li Tian stepped toward the core, the Codex's corruption in his veins surging hungrily. The artifact's light intensified, as though recognizing its counterpart.
"Careful," Xia warned. "It's reacting to you."
---
**The Trial of Worth**
As Li Tian reached for the core, the chamber shuddered. The mosaics peeled away, their fragments swirling to form a spectral figure—the Magic Emperor's echo, translucent and stern.
**"Only one tempered by primal truth may claim this mantle,"** the figure intoned. **"Face the storm."**
The chamber dissolved.
Li Tian stood atop a barren peak, the sky churning with a tempest of raw primal energy. Lightning lashed the ground, each strike birthing ephemeral creatures of wind and fire. The Emperor's voice boomed:
**"Control the storm, or become its prey."**
Li Tian raised his corrupted arm, the Codex's power clashing with the tempest's fury. He wrestled the energy into submission, bending lightning and gale to his will, but the corruption spread with every surge. When the storm stilled, his left eye had turned fully black.
The vision shattered, returning him to the chamber. The Primal Core now floated within reach.
---
**The Core's Embrace**
Xia gripped his shoulder. "You don't have to do this. There's another way."
Li Tian met her gaze. "The Hollow Star is coming. This is the only way to protect them all."
He grasped the core.
Agony. Ecstasy. Power.
The core fused with his chest, its energy flooding his meridians. The corruption recoiled, then adapted, weaving itself into the primal stream. Murals ignited with new scenes—Li Tian clad in starlight, the Hollow Star's chains fracturing, villages burning.
Old Guo staggered. "The core's visions… they're not prophecies. They're *choices*."
The chamber quaked. Cracks spiderwebbed across the dome.
"Time's up," Jin growled, hauling Bo toward the exit.
Li Tian turned, the core's light pulsing through him. "Run."
---
**The Weight of Dawn**
They fled as the ruin collapsed, the Primal Core's energy shielding them from the worst of the fallout. Beyond the labyrinth, dawn bled across the Deadbone Wastes, illuminating the Ashbringer's forces camped at the horizon.
Li Tian clenched his fist, primal energy crackling around him. The corruption lay dormant, temporarily sated.
"What now?" Renshu asked.
"Now," Li Tian said, "we end this."
---