The light faded slowly—like a sunrise trapped inside a room—and what remained at the center of the shattered hall was no longer a sphere.
It had unfolded.
What stood before Eris now was a floating, seven-sided crystalline core—each face glowing a different color, each humming with a resonance that shook the air.
The relic of the Seven.
The original conduit.
The Emperor collapsed to his knees, trembling.
"No… no… that relic was never meant to see light again…" he whispered. "It was locked away for a reason. You cannot control—"
The relic moved.
It rotated once, slowly, as if examining Eris.
A faint vibration passed through the hall, rattling broken stones and ringing every metallic object like a chorus of tuning forks.
Then—
A single, calm voice echoed inside Eris' mind.
"Descendant… synchronization initializing."
His breath caught.
Energy surged from the relic, forming arcs of light that wrapped around his arms, chest, and spine like living filaments. Each strand pulsed with an ancient heartbeat.
The Saints, still kneeling, bowed their heads lower.
"This… this is the inheritance of the original clan…" one whispered.
The Emperor screamed and lunged forward in desperation.
"STOP THIS! STOP HIM! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE AWAKENING!?"
He swung his ceremonial blade—only for it to shatter before it even touched the barrier of light surrounding Eris.
The relic spun faster.
Colors brightened—red, gold, blue, silver, green, violet, and white—merging into a spectral storm. The air rippled like water.
Eris clenched his jaw as the power rushed through him, not painful, but impossibly vast.
"What… are you doing to me…?"
The relic answered:
"Restoring what was scattered."
The hall flared white again.
Shadows vanished entirely.
Even the Emperor's scream was drowned by the rising hum.
For a moment—just a heartbeat—Eris saw visions:
A battlefield beneath a dying sun.
Seven warriors standing together.
A colossal being of pure darkness descending from the heavens.
A final sacrifice.
A shattered seed of light flying into the cosmos…
Then it was gone.
The relic dimmed.
The hum faded.
And the hall returned to silence.
Eris stood there breathing hard, hands trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the echo of something colossal inside him.
The relic hovered at his side, resting like a loyal sentinel.
The Emperor stared up at him, pale, broken, defeated.
"You've doomed us all…" he whispered.
Eris looked down at him with calm, steady eyes that no longer held the innocence of a boy.
"No."
"I'm the one who will save what's left."
Behind him, the Saints rose—
not to fight him,
not to oppose him,
but to stand with him.
The Empire had just gained its greatest power…
and lost its ruler in the same moment.