The multiverse shook—not with the fury of war, but with something far more insidious.
Recalibration.
Worlds shifted subtly. Laws trembled. Stars flickered in hesitation. Even the vast timelines bent ever so slightly, like blades of grass before a coming storm.
Zhen stood atop the Broken Spiral Plateau, a hovering landmass newly born from his clash with the Archivist-King Varneth. Around him swirled fragments of space-time, glowing with equations no mortal tongue could pronounce. His breath came slow and even, but his eyes... those eyes held the intensity of a collapsing sun.
> [Dimensional Synchronization: 4.7%]
[Multiverse Thread Indexation: Unstable – anomaly recursion detected.]
[Primordial Anomaly Protocol Engaged.]
[Initiate "Echo Retrieval."]
Zhen's gaze hardened.
Echo Retrieval?
His instincts screamed a name.
Xueyin.
---
In a distant plane: The Cradle of Echoes
It was a realm sealed even from time itself, hidden between the folds of memory and dream. In its center floated a girl.
Silver-haired. Eyes like moonlight refracted through crystal. She was serene, unaware that the fragments of her past shimmered like stained-glass petals around her.
She wasn't just anyone.
She was once the First Anchor of Zhen's soul.
The mirror that bore his other half—the twin star born of the same fated oath.
As her fingertips brushed a nearby memory shard, the air trembled. A faint voice echoed from beyond dimensions.
"Xueyin… I'm coming."
---
Back at the Plateau, Zhen's body shimmered with multi-dimensional light. The Heaven Piercer pulsed in sync with his heart. Its blade had changed, too—no longer a mere weapon, but a soul artifact, bound to his Anomaly Core.
He turned to the void horizon.
The Tower.
It had appeared after Varneth's defeat—an impossible spire of mirrored reality. Each level reflected a universe that might have been, yet wasn't.
And at its summit?
> [Multiverse System Core – Throne of Origin.]
Zhen understood instantly.
This was where Architects were born. Where Laws were forged. Where the first System had been written in the blood of fallen gods.
It was both a trial... and an invitation.
---
But he wasn't alone.
A ripple tore through the atmosphere.
From the Void Rift stepped a familiar silhouette—silver robes, sharp eyes, and a blade that shimmered like woven thunder.
Wen Qorin.
The Azure Lightning Sovereign.
"You've made it farther than I expected, Zhen," Qorin said with a crooked grin. "But you've also become a variable too dangerous to be left unchecked."
Behind him, several Sovereign-class entities emerged—Zhen recognized one: Tiamora, the Queen of the Obsidian Flame. Another, veiled in smoke and bone, was Xel-Karth, the Devourer of Paradox.
Qorin continued, "The Tower answers only to the qualified. And while your anomaly grants you power, it doesn't grant you right."
Zhen smiled faintly. "Right? I don't need permission."
Then he vanished.
No teleportation.
No movement.
He simply was—now behind Qorin, Heaven Piercer's edge against his throat.
"You're still bound by causality," Zhen whispered. "I've rewritten mine."
Qorin growled and leapt back, clashing blades. Lightning ripped the skies, but Zhen was already beyond it. The battle didn't last long.
Within moments, Zhen stood alone again.
But the Tower didn't open.
Instead, it spoke.
---
> [Entry Locked: Key Entity 'Echo' Incomplete.]
[Locate the Fragmented Memory Core of Xueyin. Reunification required.]
[Initiating Spatial Threadwalk Protocol.]
The world shifted.
Zhen felt his form pulled through the membrane of one reality into another—a world of twilight, forever caught in the moment between dusk and dawn. Buildings floated upside down. Time bent in curves. Shadows spoke.
He landed hard.
At the center of this new realm stood a cathedral made of starlight and bone.
Inside, chained by crystalline vines, was Xueyin.
She opened her eyes.
And for the first time, she remembered everything.
The runes blazed. The sky above the fractured dominion bled celestial fire. Zhen floated amidst the storm of collapsing fragments, his gaze steady as the Celestial Core Fragment hovered before him—its light impossibly ancient, yet eerily alive.
"Zhen…" Litiantian's voice echoed through the shimmering realm. She stood at the edge of an unraveling platform, strands of cosmic hair trailing behind her like streaks of frozen time. "That fragment… it's no longer inert. It's watching you."
Zhen extended his palm, and the fragment answered—not with obedience, but with challenge.
A pulse of radiant will erupted from it. Time buckled. Space folded in reverse. Even his system blinked with an error:
> [System Warning]
Celestial Core Will Detected. Unknown Authority Class: Ω
Initiating… Judgment of Entitlement
A blinding flash engulfed him, and when the world returned, he stood not in space—but in a domain of mirrored stars and infinite stairs.
"Where…?" he whispered.
A voice—neither male nor female, neither cruel nor kind—echoed across the emptiness.
"Heir of contradiction. Bearer of ascent. To hold the fragment is to bear the burden of existence itself. Are you prepared to challenge the Judges of Origin?"
Zhen narrowed his eyes. "If I must."
Before him, three cloaked figures emerged from the mirrored horizon, each radiating aura so overwhelming that even his Divine-Emperor body trembled.
> [New Trial: Judgment of Entitlement - Origin Tribunal]
Objective: Defeat the Triad of Beginning
Reward: Integration with Celestial Will (Partial)
Penalty: Soul Erasure
He smirked. "Bring it on."
---
■ Origin Tribunal Trial — Begins
The first Judge moved. Wielding a staff carved from the First Sound, it attacked not his body but his memory. Visions flooded Zhen's mind: his birth in the scarred world, his first battle, the lonely path of ascension.
Pain sliced through his soul. His knees buckled.
But he clenched his fists and roared, "I AM STILL ME!"
> [Willpower Check Passed]
Resistance to Memory Erosion +++
The second Judge summoned the Weight of Infinity, attempting to drown Zhen in the gravity of fate itself. Galaxies coiled around him like chains.
But Zhen summoned his own will, his aura blooming into Runes of Defiance—scars of battle now etched across reality.
> [Unique Skill Unlocked: Multiverse Defiance Sigil]
The final Judge didn't attack. It knelt.
"The third does not challenge you," the voice echoed. "It recognizes the mark. The Rune of Beginning now resides within you."
And with that, the trial realm cracked.
---
■ Return from Judgment — Integration Begins
Back in reality, the fragment trembled, then dissolved into Zhen's chest.
> [System Alert]
Celestial Core Fragment: Absorbed
System Integration: 12%
New Authority Unlocked: Celestial Interference
You may now interfere with:
– Probability
– Worldline Branching
– Temporal Anchoring (Limited)
His vision burned. He could now see timelines—as strings, lines, scars. He could hear the heartbeat of the world, the rhythm of death, and the breath of rebirth.
But before he could even adjust—
A crack echoed through the firmament.
Out stepped a figure cloaked in obsidian fog, his presence devouring light itself. The stars around him stopped spinning. The void trembled.
"Ah, so you've awakened the fragment. Then you are worthy… of being devoured."
Zhen's eyes narrowed. "You are…?"
"The Sovereign of Silence. The Final Void. The one who ends all paths—" the figure's voice echoed, dead and cold, "—and your future."
---
■ Final Void: The Sovereign of Silence Arrives
The moment he stepped forward, all sound vanished.
Even Zhen's heartbeat disappeared.
A pop-up appeared:
> [Fatal Alert]
You have entered a zone of Eternal Silence
All verbal spells, command runes, and will-based techniques: SEALED
Survival Chance: 18%
Escape Probability: 2.6%
Counter Option Detected: "Phoenix Domain Authority"
Zhen smiled.
From behind him, the skies parted—Feng Lingxi descended in a blaze of vermillion flames, her divine feather cloak dancing like the sun's tears.
"Touch him," she hissed, "and you'll taste rebirth... forever."
Behind her, Litiantian stepped forth, eyes glowing with shattered stars.
"You face not one, Sovereign. You face the convergence of fates."
The battle for the Core… had truly begun.