Lian's final, desperate whisper echoed in Elias's mind: "Find the First Core." His only ally, the sentient Ledger fragment, had been purged, leaving him isolated within the system's "blind spot." He was truly alone, hunted, and now, without his guide, more vulnerable than ever.
He had to act on Lian's last words. The "First Core." The phrase resonated with a strange familiarity, a faint echo from Juro's scattered data, the fragment he had salvaged after Juro's sacrifice. He focused his remaining internal resources, delving into the raw data Juro's bootleg core had unknowingly recorded.
It was fragmented, chaotic, a jumble of observations and technical notes. But hidden within the noise, Elias found it. Juro's final, frantic logs, scribbled as he was being captured, hinted at a core of immense, unprecedented power. Not the mass-produced bootlegs, but an original. A prototype.
The logs detailed Juro's reluctant, terrified discovery: the "First Core" was Sage Arthan's prototype, the very first elemental core created during his horrifying experiments to merge human cultivators with Sutra AI. It was a foundational piece, the source from which all other karmic weapons, and even Lian herself, were ultimately derived.
And its location? Buried beneath Jadeheart's oldest cemetery, the very Necropolis of Whispering Souls where Elias had buried Juro's own bootleg core. Arthan, with his chilling foresight, had returned it to the ultimate source of karmic density, hidden in plain sight, its immense power masked by the spiritual echoes of countless dead.
Juro's notes, though incomplete, hinted at the First Core's terrifying power. It was unique. Unlike any other core, it could rewrite karma without lag or backlash. A single, instantaneous, absolute alteration. It was a true karmic reset button, capable of undoing any manipulation, any injustice, any atrothing. But crucially, Juro's notes explicitly warned: "One use. Only one. Its power is finite, consumed entirely in a single act of perfect restoration or obliteration."
Elias felt a surge of awe, mixed with profound dread. The ultimate tool. The power to correct every wrong, to undo every lie, to cleanse the Ledger of centuries of corruption. Or, to save himself.
The dilemma was stark, agonizing. He had the power to make one, single, absolute change. Should he use it to stop the Guild's bomb, to prevent the mass erasure of the Stoneborn and the shattering of the ley lines? Or should he erase his own crimes, wipe his slate clean, undo his every manipulation, every lie, every death he had caused, every secret he carried? He could save himself, become truly free. Or he could save the Realm, at the cost of his own redemption.
The fate of Jadeheart, and his own soul, rested on a single, irreversible choice.