The air in the hall plummeted to freezing point.
"Fortune Duke," Cerydra's voice lowered, each word seeming dredged from an ice cellar, containing the extreme calm before a storm. "You'd better give me a reasonable explanation."
Phaethon could feel the temperature of the small flame next to his hand seemed to have risen sharply. His mind raced, and in that flash of lightning, a perfect excuse popped out!
"Ahahaha, Your Majesty, calm your anger, calm your anger!" Phaethon didn't dare use any casual address now, directly using the honorific. He forced a dry laugh, trying to dissolve the deadly awkwardness with a light tone.
"I wanted to tell you, all of this happening is actually all Aha's doing! Yes, that's right, it's Aha! The cunning Aha is trying to sow discord between you and me!"
Aha should step up at times like this! Take responsibility for everything!
After all, isn't the God of Delight meant for shouldering blame?
(Somewhere far away, a red mask seemed to sneeze, then erupted into even more gleeful laughter: "Hahahaha! Aha has no face! Shouldering blame is also delightful!")
"Aha? Who is that?" Cerydra's voice was frighteningly level, and no clear joy or anger showed on her face.
Only the originally deep blue flame atop her head was now, very strangely, tinged with a faint, ominous purple.
"Ahem, that's not important, Your Majesty," Phaethon said, his tone subtly shifting to one of righteous conviction.
"You once said my power came too easily, asserting that all I relied on was 'luck.'
"But you never seem to have truly considered whether I deserve all I possess now, and what attitude I use to 'pay' the price."
"What do you mean by that?" Cerydra abruptly raised her head, fire dancing in her pupils, reflecting Phaethon's utterly serious face at this moment.
Phaethon's gaze went past her, sharply fixed on the formless yet omnipresent Titan of 'Law' on the other side of the board.
"What I mean, Your Majesty" Phaethon's voice was low but carried penetrating power,
"is that rather than using the lives and futures of your loyal subordinates as stakes to play a game destined to exact a heavy toll have you never thought of another, more direct way to obtain that so-called Coreflame?"
He strode forward, his figure appearing exceptionally upright at this moment.
"For example" He stopped at the edge of the board, turned his head, his gaze sharp as a blade, looking at Cerydra.
"Using the sacrifices and power on this board not to play a game with Him, but to use it to directly challenge the Titan of 'Law' Himself?!"
It was also at this moment that he finally, stealthily, withdrew the hand that had been resting on the Imperator's head, the source of all this trouble.
Cerydra's pupils constricted sharply.
"Cerydra, you need to understand," Phaethon's voice gradually tightened.
"When someone invites you to play a game of chess, besides choosing to follow the rules and win, you have another option"
His voice suddenly rose, like thunderclaps echoing in this hall of absolute rules:
"That is to smash the chessboard right over his head!"
Before his words faded, Phaethon turned sharply towards the vast light-shadow chessboard. His voice, like a war horn, resounded throughout the Hall of the Trinity:
"Talanton! (Titan of Law) I, Phaethon, hereby declare the commencement of the trial to obtain the Coreflame of 'Law'!"
The majestic, non-human voice responded almost immediately, carrying rule-like coldness and absoluteness:
"Mortal child, since thou hast initiated the trial, what price art thou prepared to pay?"
"Everything I have!" Phaethon's answer held not a shred of hesitation, decisive and firm.
"Oh?" The Titan's voice seemed to carry an extremely subtle, amused fluctuation. "In that case, offer up the heart of the one and only person you hold most dear."
"Hahahaha!" Phaethon burst into unrestrained laughter as if hearing the most absurd joke, filled with undisguised mockery and powerful confidence.
"Titan! You seem to have misunderstood something! I said 'everything I have'! That refers to my power, my energy, my conviction, my resolve everything I possess and can command! Not a life you designate, not the life of someone I cherish!"
The light in his hand sharply gathered. The blazing, majestic blade of the Judgment of Shamash solidified into existence in an instant, its burning tip pointed directly at the supreme existence representing 'Law' at the source of the board!
"And if you want this price" Phaethon's voice lowered, yet contained overwhelming fighting spirit, "you'll have to come and take it yourself!"
Boom!
The oppressive might of the Heavenly Fire and the formless rule-based power of the Titan collided violently in the void, stirring circles of silent energy ripples. The entire hall trembled.
Phaethon did not look back. All he left for the stunned Cerydra behind him was a resolute back, words that fell with the weight of stone, and an Infinity Gate quietly opening beside her, leading to safety.
"This is my view on so-called 'fate's price.' I know full well that all things have a cost. Nothing is free."
Phaethon's voice, calm yet filled with power, reached Cerydra's ears.
"But when 'fate' comes knocking with an IOU I absolutely refuse to ever meekly hand the payment over to it myself!"
"Either, he comes and takes it himself. Or, he gets the hell out of my way!"
...
Phaethon stood amidst the wreckage at the center of the Hall of the Three Fate. The once grand and solemn hall had now been utterly devastated by an indescribable clash of forces.
Massive stone pillars were broken in half. Walls inscribed with ancient murals were covered in web-like cracks. The ground was littered with charred burn marks and deep, cleaving gashes, as if savagely gnawed by an invisible behemoth.
He took a deep breath of air thick with dust and energy residue, already beginning to feel a twinge of regret for the bold words he had spoken before Cerydra not long ago.
The reason was simple this fight was utterly frustrating!
He, Phaethon, possessed authority derived from 'Law.' He could speak edicts into existence, establish rules.
But the Talanton opposite him was the incarnation of 'Law' itself! Playing this game was his original profession!
Both were pure "mechanism monsters," engaging in the most fundamental rule-based confrontation on the same level, in the same domain.
It was like two peerless masters from the same school, who knew each other's moves inside out, crossing swords. Any rule-setting, law-altering, authority-contesting would be instantly perceived by the other and neutralized or reflected in a completely equivalent manner.