The sky was a haunting crimson, reminiscent of a fresh wound, as the world plunged into chaos.
The Grand Flare had transformed the atmosphere into a relentless inferno. Below the mountain, the Seven Lands erupted in fury. Forests ignited in spontaneous flames, while the river shrank back into a dry grave of cracked mud and burnt fish.
At the epicentre of this apocalypse stood Seo Hyeon Muk, a towering figure amidst the chaos. His hair, once luxuriant and black, was now turning white, as if the very essence of a dying world was seeping into his bones. He was a solitary pillar of frost battling against a universe engulfed in fire.
"Hold… the line…" he gasped, his voice a haunting echo of grinding glaciers.
With a cataclysmic roar, he unleashed the Seventh Forbidden Art: Absolute Zero Realm.
A wave of crystalline silence burst from his hands, slashing through the roaring inferno. For a heartbeat, the world was engulfed in a blinding white light.
Then, the searing heat dissolved. The sun, battered and exhausted, retreated against the unyielding wall of the Night Emperor's will. Hyeon Muk collapsed to his knees, his heart resonating with a heavy, metallic clink. The solar energy he had siphoned began solidifying, transforming his heartbeat into a slow, ominous pulse. He was immobilised, encased in a stony prison of cooling jade, trapped in the "Stasis of the Saviour."
Through the steam rising from the cooling land, seven ominous shadows approached. They were the Masters of the Great Sects, who just hours before had been pleading for Hyeon Muk's salvation.
"Is it done?" whispered Lady Hwa, the Vermilion Alchemist. Her voice laced with trepidation.
"He is spent," replied the Emperor Gwang Mu, his gaze fixed on the radiant Diamond Heart glowing beneath Hyeon Muk's tattered robes. "He harbours the power of a star within him. If he awakens... we will be mere ants beneath his shadow."
Hyeon Muk's eyes blinked open, but he was powerless to move. He could only watch as the men he had just saved surrounded him, their eyes reflecting a chilling emotion...Fear.
Fear of being bound to a god.
"History will say the Sun was vanquished by the Seven Pillars Of Heaven." The Emperor Gwang Mu declared, pulling forth a glowing nail of pulsing and orange light from a leaden box. "And history will say it was the Night Emperor who summoned the fire."
The Seven Spirit Nails.
"Forgive us, my lord." Lady Hwa whispered, though her eyes showed no compassion.
With a relentless drive, she plunged the Crown Nail into the top of Hyeon Muk's skull.
A scream clawed at Hyeon Muk's throat but never escaped. One by one, the Seven Spirit Nails were driven home. Each strike resonated like thunder, reverberating through the dying heat of the afternoon.
As the Heart Nail pierced his chest, Hyeon Muk felt the last remnants of warmth flee. The betrayal chilled him deeper than any ice he had ever conjured.
"Seal the mountain!" the Emperor commanded, a cruel smile gracing his lips. "Let the ice he cherished become his shroud. From this day forth, his name shall be a curse. His empire will be but a whisper of memory. And the sun belongs to us!"
As the stones were piled high, blotting out the final rays of light, Hyeon Muk's golden eyes remained defiantly open in the encroaching darkness. He couldn't move or speak, but within the eerie silence of the mountain, a new kind of Qi began to surge.
It was not the Qi of a Saviour. It was the ominous Qi of the End.
And so, the Night Emperor lay in slumber. For five centuries, he awaited a single crack in the stone, biding his time for the world to forget. He waited…for someone bold enough to release him from his eternal prison.