The Frost Phoenix's cry split the glacial air, its wings unleashing a blizzard of cursed ice that turned the tomb's remnants into a storm of diamond shards. Moran stood unmoved, Voidflame swirling around him like a shroud of liquid night. Behind him, Yan Meiling coughed weakly, her golden eyes dimming as frost crept across her skin.
"Sovereign!" Bai Zhu'er snarled, her tails lashing as ice tore through her fur. "If you're done posing, maybe melt this overgrown chicken?"
Xia Qingyue lunged to shield Yan Meiling, her moonlit dagger deflecting a hail of ice spears. "She's fading! Do something!"
Moran's gaze never left the godbeast. "The Phoenix isn't the enemy," he said, his voice cutting through the storm. "It's a puppet. And puppets…"
The Eclipse Codex erupted from his soul, its pages fanning into a vortex of black flame. "…have strings."
Voidflame surged upward, not toward the Phoenix, but into the ice itself. The ground liquefied, revealing a lattice of glowing frost runes—the Frost Phoenix Palace's binding array, hidden beneath millennia of ice.
Luo Xuewei's voice echoed from the storm, disembodied and mocking. "Clever, Sovereign! But the array is indestructible!"
"Indestructible?" Moran's laugh was a blade of contempt. "A word invented by those too weak to break things."
He clenched his fist. The Voidflame coalesced into a blade of pure negation—the Eclipse Edge, a technique lost since the Godfall Wars. With a single strike, the runes shattered, and the Frost Phoenix faltered, its roar becoming a screech of agony.
"Now," Moran said, turning to Bai Zhu'er. "Eat your fill."
The fox spirit's grin turned feral. She leaped, her form dissolving into a shadowy maelstrom that latched onto the Phoenix's neck. Divine ichor sprayed, freezing midair before her tails whipped it into oblivion.
Xia Qingyue stared, her dagger trembling. "You… you knew the array was there all along?"
"Luo Xuewei's betrayal was inevitable," Moran said, watching the Phoenix thrash. "Her ancestors sold their souls to the Frost Dao. But souls…" He snapped his fingers.
The dying Phoenix exploded into a rain of molten ice, revealing Luo Xuewei crumpled at the tomb's heart, her frost armor cracked, her eyes wide with terror.
"…are currency I devalue."
Yan Meiling stirred, her voice a whisper. "Master… the Well. It's not what you think. It's—"
A tremor shook the world. The sky split, not with ice, but with golden light—a tear in reality itself. Through it poured a legion of armored figures, their sigil a flaming eye weeping blood.
The All-Seeing Celestials.
At their helm stood Su Ling'er, her body reforged in celestial gold, her eyes twin suns of hatred. "The Well's patience ends, Zhuo Tianfeng. Your era dies today."
Bai Zhu'er spat out a Phoenix feather. "Ugh. Celestials again? Don't they have a newsletter to publish?"
Moran's Voidflame reignited, darker, hungrier. "Good. I needed kindling."
Xia Qingyue grabbed his arm, her voice desperate. "What about Yan Meiling? She's dying!"
He glanced at his fallen disciple, then at the celestial horde. "Death is a luxury, girl. I decide who earns it."
The Eclipse Codex blazed, its pages etching a new law into the world itself. Yan Meiling's frostbitten body levitated, encased in a cocoon of Voidflame.
"Stay alive," Moran commanded her. "Your atonement isn't complete."
As the Celestials descended, he raised the Eclipse Edge, its blade singing with the promise of oblivion.
"Come. Let me teach eternity what fear tastes like."