High above the world, nestled in a cloud-wreathed vortex, lay the Midnight Spiral. Once a grand floating citadel of the Celestial Scholars, it had become a storm-wracked battlefield—the last defensive bastion before the Sovereign could descend upon the Mortal Planes.
Lin Sheng stood upon the deck of the Skywyrm flagship, Heaven's Judgment, which glided toward the Spiral through lightning-laced winds. His cloak, woven from starlight and oath-threads, rippled with celestial resonance. Behind him stood Mira, Jin Rui, and Fei'er, now joined by Maerion, whose iron bulk seemed too great for the airship.
"The Spiral is unraveling," Mira said, reading the fluctuating ley lines that bent and buckled like torn silk. "The Sovereign's Herald is already within."
"And the Celestial Scholars?" Lin Sheng asked.
"Either dead… or converted."
As they neared the citadel, a piercing sound tore through the skies—a shriek of reality being rewritten. An obsidian glyph erupted in the clouds ahead, slicing through their path. The ship lurched.
Maerion roared. "Void anchors! They're trying to crash us!"
Lin Sheng slammed his palm to the ship's command node, flooding it with Aeonic energy. The Heaven's Judgment shimmered, then split into a swarm of star-forged falcons, reforming moments later past the glyph.
They reached the Spiral's core platform just in time to see the Herald descend.
She was a towering figure, veiled in robes of blood and mist, her face a mask of glass that reflected not light, but memory. Her voice echoed across the realm.
"Lin Sheng, Returnee of Earth. You stand before inevitability. The Sovereign does not conquer. He corrects. Your Accord? A relic of imbalance."
Lin Sheng stepped forward. "And yet, here you are. Seeking to destroy rather than heal. You speak of balance, but act in tyranny."
The Herald raised her hand. Around them, reality shifted. Beams of divine order became whips of chaos. Mira staggered, shielding Fei'er. Jin Rui struck the ground, anchoring their realm with his soul.
"Enough!" Maerion's blade flared, a monument of raw, unrelenting force. He charged the Herald, meeting her in a cataclysmic clash that sent shockwaves rippling across dimensions.
Lin Sheng didn't wait. He reached within the Aeonic Accord. Three Guardian pacts answered—Storm, Flame, Depth—and Maerion's fourth added a new tier: Endurance.
He transformed, not in body, but in presence. The very Spiral halted, recognizing a power akin to a forgotten god. Lin Sheng leapt into the fray.
Fei'er stabilized the ley lines while Mira created a mirror network that began reflecting the Herald's own reality distortions back at her. Jin Rui launched into the sky, delivering thunderous punches that reshaped the battlefield.
"You are too late!" the Herald screamed, revealing her true form—a weeping angel bound by Sovereign chains, her wings bladed with broken timelines.
"You were once a Scholar," Lin Sheng said. "I will give you mercy."
They clashed mid-air. Blade against chain, flame against void, memory against despair. Lin Sheng began unraveling her bindings, exposing her core.
"I remember Earth," she whispered. "A blue sky. A child's laughter."
He pierced her heart. "Then return to it, in peace."
She exploded in a burst of memory-light, her essence returned to the Spiral, stabilizing the collapsing realm.
[System Alert: Sovereign Herald Defeated. Midnight Spiral Secured. Celestial Core Reforged.]
But victory was not complete. As the Spiral settled, a final glyph formed in the air.
A summons.
A deep voice echoed through every world:
"Lin Sheng, you have assembled the Accord. You have awakened the Guardians. But you have trespassed beyond your station. The Sovereign invites you... to Ascension."
The glyph burned into Lin Sheng's soul.
"I accept," he said quietly.
Maerion frowned. "You know what this means?"
"I do. The next battle... is not of blades or systems. It is of truths."
And the sky above them split.
To be continued in Chapter Twenty-Three – "The Sovereign's Throne"