The northern skies had never known peace. As Lin Sheng and his allies approached the Iron Wastes, the world turned a shade darker, as if the heavens themselves wept rusted tears. Here, the land bore no flame or flood—it was forged entirely of steel. Iron hills groaned under their own weight. Metallic forests stretched in sharp silence. The very winds rang with the clashing of unseen blades.
"This is no natural realm," Mira whispered, touching a blade-leaf that hummed in her hand.
"It's a domain forged by war," Jin Rui replied. "And war remembers."
At the center of this steel-encased world stood a fortress of myth: the Iron Crucible. According to the Aeonic Accord's system readouts, this was the resting place of the final Guardian—King Maerion, the Forgotten Blade, once the Arbiter of Balance between realms.
[System Alert: Final Guardian Detected – Probability of Conflict with Sovereign Incarnates: High.]
The journey to the Crucible was far more perilous than they had anticipated. The Iron Wastes were filled with wandering echoes—wraiths of dead warriors cursed to relive their final battles. Time folded strangely here. One moment the sky shone with star-metal clarity, and the next, twilight descended like a falling sword.
As they climbed the metallic ridges toward the Crucible, they found evidence of Sovereign intervention. Craters marked with black sigils, dying flame constructs corrupted with void essence, and the shattered armor of fallen cultivators. The Sovereign's hand had reached here first.
At the gates of the Crucible, they met resistance.
An army.
Sovereign Incarnates—cultivators who had surrendered themselves wholly to the Sovereign's will—formed a defensive perimeter. Their leader stood clad in duskplate, a seven-eyed helm upon his face.
"Returnee Lin Sheng," the Incarnate said, his voice a chorus of metallic echoes. "You seek the Guardian. But Maerion will not awaken for you. He sleeps beneath oaths that no longer bind."
Lin Sheng activated the Emberlight Blade, its glow slicing through the shadows. "We'll see about that."
The battle was unlike any before. Sovereign forces wielded chaos-infused weapons, each slash altering reality. Jin Rui carved faultlines in the metal earth with his titan-fists. Fei'er warped enemy minds with illusionary time-loops. Mira danced between constructs, her mirrored blade severing space itself.
Lin Sheng clashed with the helm-wearing leader above the fortress, their duel lighting up the sky. He fused the powers of all three Guardians—Storm, Flame, and Depth—channeling an Aeonic Triforge Strike. The helm cracked, revealing a half-human, half-void creature whose eyes wept molten stars.
"You are not a pawn," the Incarnate gasped. "You… might be the end."
Lin Sheng struck him down.
The fortress gates opened.
Within the Crucible, the silence was absolute. Colossal statues of past Aeonic warriors lined the corridor. And at the far end, impaled upon a throne of rusted swords, sat King Maerion.
He did not stir as they approached.
Only when Lin Sheng unsheathed the Emberlight Blade and struck it against the floor did Maerion's eyes snap open.
"You wear the legacy of the Accord," Maerion said, his voice like iron grinding. "But do you know what it cost?"
"I do," Lin Sheng said. "And I'm willing to pay more if it means ending the Sovereign's tyranny."
Maerion rose slowly, his limbs groaning with age and weight. "You seek awakening, not salvation. But perhaps one leads to the other."
He raised his rusted greatsword.
"I must test you. Not in power, but in burden. Face the Crucible of Wills."
A portal opened. Lin Sheng stepped through.
Inside, he was stripped of all power, all memory, all system guidance. He stood as a mortal again, thrown into a realm where he had nothing but his will. He walked through countless trials: betrayal by those he loved, failure to save his world, the crushing weight of loneliness.
But he never gave up.
Even without power, he climbed the mountain.
At the summit, Maerion waited. And when Lin Sheng arrived, bruised and bare, the old king knelt.
"You are ready."
[System Update: Aeonic Guardian Maerion Awakened. Final Pact Formed. Aeonic Accord Reforged.]
The Crucible trembled as power surged. Statues cracked. The sky outside lit with sigils never seen before. The world itself shifted.
Lin Sheng emerged, his aura vast, stable, and silent.
"The Accord is whole," he said. "Now we take the fight to the Sovereign."
Fei'er smiled faintly. "Then the real war begins."
To be continued in Chapter Twenty-Two – "Siege of the Midnight Spiral"