The sky bled molten gold as the last All-Seeing Celestial crumpled, his divine armor imploding under the Godrend's reality-shattering weight. Su Ling'er hovered above the carnage, her sun-bright eyes wide with disbelief. Golden ichor dripped from her reforged spear—a weapon trembling in hands that had never known doubt until this moment.
"It is written!" she screamed, her voice fraying at the edges like torn scripture. "The Well decrees your end!"
Moran flicked Voidflame from the Eclipse Edge, its obsidian blade drinking the light around it. "Tell your Well to draft a sequel."
Bai Zhu'er spat out a celestial finger. "Tastes like arrogance and poor life choices. Zero stars—would not recommend." She lunged at Su Ling'er, tails whipping like barbed chains. "Now hold still, shiny! I only bite once!"
Xia Qingyue crouched beside Yan Meiling's flickering cocoon, her moonlit dagger slick with starlight and blood. The frostbitten disciple's breath hitched, golden eyes dimming. "She's fading! Your Voidflame—"
"Is not a healing balm, girl," Moran snapped, but the Eclipse Codex twitched in his soul. Its pages fluttered wildly—not in warning, but recognition.
Yan Meiling's skeletal hand shot out, cracking the Voidflame cocoon. Her whisper was a blade of ice: "Master… the Well isn't a force. It's a prisoner… and it fears you."
The sky ripped.
A tidal wave of liquid gold—the Well's raw fury—surged toward them, swallowing mountains whole. Time fractured. Xia Qingyue's scream froze in her throat. Bai Zhu'er's fangs halted mid-snap.
Then..
"Tsk. Always so dramatic."
Luo Xuewei materialized atop a glacial spire, untouched by the frozen chaos. In her palm, a shard of pulsating light writhed—a sliver of the Well's will, torn free like a rotten tooth.
The golden wave hung suspended, inches from Moran's face.
"You didn't think I'd let you have all the fun?" Luo Xuewei's smirk was glacial. "The Frost Phoenix needed a distraction. And you, Sovereign, make excellent bait."
Moran didn't spare her a glance. His gaze locked on the captured Well-shard. "You stole from a god."
"Borrowed!" She tossed the shard carelessly. It hovered between them, throbbing with trapped divinity. "Consider it… rent for using my tomb."
Su Ling'er howled, her golden form flickering. "Heretic! The Well will unmake your bloodline!"
"Promises, promises," Bai Zhu'er sang, finally sinking her teeth into Su Ling'er's wing. The celestial's scream shattered the stillness.
Xia Qingyue staggered forward, dagger aimed at Luo Xuewei. "You used us! Yan Meiling is dying because of your schemes!"
"Dying?" Luo Xuewei laughed, cold and sharp. "She's evolving. The Well's fear is her oxygen." She nodded at the shard. "Break it, Sovereign. See what truth tastes like."
Moran's fingers closed around the light. The Codex roared in triumph.
"No!" Yan Meiling gasped. "It's a trap—!"
Too late.
The shard exploded.
Not into light, but memory.
—A throne room of liquid shadow. The Star-Shattering Empress weeping as she plunged her dagger into Moran's back—not in betrayal, but sacrifice. Her whisper: "The Well hungers for your eternity. Only death can starve it…"
—The Eclipse Codex, whole and radiant, screaming as the Well's tendrils ripped it in two.
—A prison of golden light, and within it… Moran's own face, smiling with cosmic indifference.
The vision vanished.
The frozen tidal wave crashed down.
Moran stood amidst the deluge, Voidflame boiling the golden torrent to steam. His eyes—twin abysses—found Luo Xuewei.
"You knew."
She shrugged, already dissolving into snow. "Every pawn sees the board differently, Zhuo Tianfeng. Even kings."
Bai Zhu'er dragged a half-conscious Su Ling'er by the ankle. "Snack secured! Also, the glowy prison-god is you? Awkward."
Xia Qingyue stared at Moran, horror dawning. "You… you're what the Well fears? But that means—"
"It means," Moran cut in, watching Yan Meiling's cocoon solidify into dark ice, "the game just became interesting."
High above, the fractured sky began to bleed—not gold, but void-black rain.