The chamber's collapse sent fissures spiderwebbing across the ceiling, chunks of celestial steel and primal stone crashing down like meteors. Li Tian clutched the Primal Core to his chest, its searing heat bleeding through his tunic as he sprinted after Elder Qiang. The air was thick with acrid smoke and the ozone tang of dying machinery. Behind them, the vault—and the Magic Emperor's skeletal admonition—vanished under a cascade of rubble.
"This way!" Elder Qiang shouted, thrusting his staff toward a half-collapsed archway. Beyond it, a narrow corridor sloped upward, its walls vibrating with the city's death throes.
Su Lin and Zhang Wei brought up the rear, dodging falling debris. A piston the size of a tree trunk slammed into the ground between them, shearing the path. "Split up!" Su Lin barked, veering left. Zhang Wei cursed but followed, his broadsword cleaving through a tangle of sparking cables.
Li Tian skidded to a halt, the Primal Core pulsing in rhythm with his racing heart. "Qiang! The inner chamber—the scroll mentioned it. Where?"
The elder's eyes flickered with conflict. "You read the warning. The Cores are a chain. We should destroy them, not delve deeper!"
A section of the corridor collapsed, cutting off Su Lin and Zhang Wei's path. Li Tian grabbed Qiang's robe. "The inner chamber. *Now.*"
The old man relented, pointing to a glyph-etched door half-buried under rubble. "There. But you court disaster!"
Li Tian didn't hesitate. He channeled the Celestial Core's energy into a concentrated blast, shattering the door. Beyond lay a spiraling staircase descending into impenetrable darkness.
"Go!" He shoved Qiang forward as the ceiling above them groaned.
---
**The Descent**
The staircase seemed endless, each step slick with condensation and moss. Bioluminescent fungi clung to the walls, their pallid glow revealing carvings of the Magic Emperor's triumphs and atrocities: cities raised, mountains sundered, oceans boiled to salt. The Primal Core in Li Tian's grip throbbed, its energy resonating with the depictions of raw, untamed power.
At the base of the stairs, they emerged into a cavernous hall. The air here was unnervingly still, the chaos above reduced to a distant rumble. The hall's centerpiece was a dais of blackened obsidian, upon which floated a sphere of liquid light—a perfect counterpart to the Primal Core. Around it, seven pillars of amber crystal hummed with latent energy, their surfaces etched with Old Celestial runes.
***Sanctum of the First Spark***, Elder Qiang translated, his voice hushed. ***Here, the emperor merged heaven and earth.***
Li Tian approached the dais. The sphere reacted, its light fracturing into prismatic shards that danced across the walls. "It's a conduit. For the Cores."
"And a prison," Qiang said grimly. He pointed to the base of the dais, where skeletal remains lay scattered—some human, others grotesquely elongated, their bones fused with machinery. "Test subjects. He tried to fuse mortal flesh with primal energy."
Li Tian set the Primal Core on the dais. The sphere's light enveloped it, and the room shuddered. From the shadows, a low, mechanical growl echoed.
---
**The Forgotten Sentinel**
The guardian emerged slowly, its form a nightmare of mismatched parts: a humanoid torso bolted to a scorpion's tail, four arms ending in rotary blades, and a head that was little more than a faceless orb of amber crystal. Its movements were jerky, uneven, as though the energy sustaining it were as fractured as the city above.
***Corruption detected***, it intoned, voice glitching. ***Purge protocol… purge protocol…***
Li Tian drew his dagger, its edge dulled from the earlier battle. "Stay back. This one's unstable."
The sentinel lunged, blades whirring. Li Tian ducked, the attack shearing through a pillar. Amber shards exploded, peppering his arms with cuts. He retaliated with a qi-infused kick to its midsection, but the sentinel's tail lashed out, catching him in the ribs. He crashed into the dais, the Primal Core rolling from his grasp.
Elder Qiang hurled a suppression talisman. It stuck to the sentinel's chest, freezing it momentarily. "The pillars! They're its power source!"
Li Tian scrambled to his feet. The sentinel's crystal head pulsed, its tail regenerating from the fractured amber scattered on the floor. He sprinted toward the nearest pillar, dagger raised.
"No!" Qiang shouted. "The energy backlash—"
Li Tian struck. The dagger shattered the pillar's base, and the sentinel screamed as its body destabilized. Amber fluid geysered, hardening into jagged spikes. One impaled Li Tian's thigh, pinning him to the floor.
The sentinel staggered, two of its arms falling limp. "Now, Qiang!"
The elder unleashed a torrent of fire, engulfing the sentinel. It flailed, blades melting, before collapsing into a heap of smoldering scrap.
Li Tian wrenched the spike from his leg, silver blood mingling with amber. The Celestial Core's light stuttered, struggling to heal the wound.
---
**The Fusion**
The dais trembled as the Primal Core floated into the sphere's embrace. Energy arced between them, threads of gold and amber weaving into a chaotic tapestry. Li Tian limped forward, drawn by the display.
"This is madness," Qiang warned. "The emperor's own words—"
"Were a warning, not a commandment," Li Tian snapped. He pressed his palm to the sphere. "I control the Cores. Not the other way around."
The room dissolved.
---
**Visions of the Primordial**
Li Tian stood in a void, the Primal Core and Celestial Core orbiting him like binary stars. Before him loomed the Magic Emperor, not as a skeletal remnant but in his prime—youthful, radiant, eyes ablaze with ambition.
**"You think yourself different?"** the emperor sneered. **"I too believed I could master the storm."**
The vision shifted. Li Tian saw himself atop a mountain of corpses, the Primal Core embedded in his chest, cities burning in the distance. Su Lin lay at his feet, her throat slit by his blade.
***This is your future***, the emperor whispered. ***The Cores demand sacrifice.***
Li Tian roared, shattering the vision. "I am not you!"
The cores flared, their energies merging into a maelstrom that scoured his meridians. Pain—white-hot, all-consuming—blotted out reason.
---
**Reckoning**
When consciousness returned, Li Tian lay on the dais, the sphere dark and cracked. The Primal Core was gone, its energy fused with the Celestial Core's—and with him. His veins glowed amber beneath his skin, primal power simmering just beneath the surface.
Elder Qiang stared, horror-struck. "What have you done?"
Li Tian flexed his hand, a flicker of molten stone dancing across his fingertips. "What I had to."
The cavern shuddered, the final supports giving way. "We need to go," Qiang urged. "The city dies with us in it!"
They fled, the staircase crumbling behind them. Aboveground, Su Lin and Zhang Wei waited, battered but alive.
"Took your time," Zhang Wei grumbled, eyeing Li Tian's amber-veined hands. "What's with the new jewelry?"
Li Tian didn't answer. The Primal Core's energy writhed within him, a caged beast. Ahead, the horizon burned crimson—the Talons, closing in.
And deeper still, in the marrow of his bones, the Magic Emperor's laughter echoed.
---