The silver arrow didn't just pierce Yeon-hee; it shattered the paper-mache reality she had woven around them. She fell back into the violet fog, her paper butterflies turning to ash as they touched Seol-ah's holy resonance.
"Keep... going!" Seol-ah gasped, her bow arm trembling.
Kang-woo didn't waste a second. He gripped her waist and kicked off a piece of falling debris, using the last of his mana to manifest a temporary path of shadow. They slammed onto the balcony of the central Citadel—the 'Throne of Ribs.'
[Warning: Entering the King's Sanctum.][The pressure of the Abyss is crushing your lungs.]
The interior of the Citadel was a cathedral of bone. It was silent, save for the rhythmic thumping of the ten reactors outside. At the far end of the hall stood the Throne. It wasn't empty.
A shadow sat there. Not the King, but a remnant—a physical manifestation of his will left to guard the heart of his power.
[Entity Identified: Shadow of the Eternal King.]
"Wait here," Kang-woo whispered to Seol-ah, setting her down near a pillar.
"Kang-woo, your heart..." She reached out, seeing the black ink leaking from the wound in his chest.
"It doesn't beat anyway," he replied.
He walked toward the throne. The Shadow rose, unsheathing a blade made of frozen screams. Kang-woo didn't summon his Knight-Commander. He didn't have the mana left. He simply held the Key to the Sunken Throne like a dagger.
The Shadow blurred.
Clang!
Kang-woo blocked the strike with the black key. The impact vibrations traveled through his arm, shattering the bone in his forearm. He didn't flinch. He couldn't feel pain anymore—only the cold logic of the Sovereign.
"You're just a memory," Kang-woo hissed.
He lunged forward, taking the Shadow's blade through his shoulder to get close. As the spectral steel pierced him, he jammed the Key into the Shadow's chest—where the heart should be.
[Syncing with the Throne: 10%... 40%...]
The Shadow screamed—a sound that echoed through all ten Citadels. Outside, the King, still fighting Baek In-ho, froze. He felt his connection to his own fortresses flickering.
"NO!" the King's voice roared from the distance."THAT IS MY SEAT!"
The King unleashed a massive burst of violet energy, blowing Baek In-ho back miles into the city. He abandoned the fight and flew toward the main Citadel with the speed of a comet.
[Warning: The King is approaching at terminal velocity.][Time to impact: 15 seconds.]
"Hurry!" Seol-ah screamed, her hands glowing as she tried to reinforce the Key's connection from afar.
[Syncing: 70%... 85%...]
Kang-woo's vision went white. He could feel the minds of the millions of dead within the Citadels. Their hunger, their debt, their sorrow. It was a tidal wave of data trying to erase 'Kang-woo' and replace him with 'The King.'
"If you take the throne, you take the curse," the Shadow whispered as it dissolved.
"I'll take the bill," Kang-woo growled.
[Syncing: 100%][Authority Overwritten.]
Kang-woo slammed the Key into the stone socket of the throne and sat down.
The effect was instantaneous. Outside, the nine other Citadels stopped their descent. Their violet fires turned a cold, metallic gray. The bone-knights attacking the Vanguard suddenly fell to their knees.
The King slammed onto the balcony, his missing hand fully regrown into a claw of destruction. He stood at the entrance of the hall, staring at the G-rank carrier sitting on his throne.
"YOU... TRASH," the King breathed, the air around him combusting."YOU THINK SITTING THERE MAKES YOU A GOD?"
"No," Kang-woo said, leaning back into the ribs of the throne. He looked tired. He looked like a man who had finally reached the end of a long day. "It just makes me the one who decides when the lights go out."
Kang-woo raised his hand.
Across the city, the nine other Citadels began to collapse. Not from attack, but because Kang-woo had commanded them to self-destruct.
[Skill: 'The Sovereign's Final Audit' activated.]
The mana reactors of the nine fortresses inverted. A series of gray explosions lit up the sky like a second sun. The debris didn't fall on the city; it was sucked back into the Rift, pulled by the gravity of the main Citadel.
The King fell to his knees as his power source vanished. He began to turn translucent.
"This... is not... the end," the King whispered, his form flickering like a dying candle."The Great Debt... cannot be canceled."
"Maybe not," Kang-woo said, his own form beginning to crack. "But I'm filing for bankruptcy."
The King vanished into ash.
The main Citadel began to groan, its foundations failing. It was falling toward the ruins of the Association base.
Kang-woo looked at Seol-ah. She was running toward him through the falling bone-dust.
"We have to jump!" she yelled.
"Seol-ah," Kang-woo said, his voice quiet. "The throne... it won't let go of me."
His hand was fused to the armrest. The Key had become part of his nervous system. If the Citadel fell into the Rift, he was going with it.