Location: Deep Beneath the Imperial Palace – The World Tree Chamber
Time: Day 1 of the 7-Day Deadline
The elevator cage rattled as it descended into the earth.
Lin Chen stood stoically, pushing a wheelchair made of enchanted Spirit-Wood. In the chair sat Aris Thorne. Aris was pale, his violet eyes sunken, bandages covering 80% of his body. He looked like a corpse that had forgotten to die.
But his mind was racing at mach speed.
"The enemy ship is made of Celestial Gold," Aris muttered, staring at a holographic blueprint hovering over his lap. "It conducts Qi perfectly. It has shields that can tank a nuclear blast. We cannot build that. We don't have the materials."
"Then what are we building, Master?" Lin Chen asked as the elevator hit the bottom floor.
The doors opened.
The World Tree Chamber had changed. It was no longer a quiet sanctuary. It was a shipyard.
The massive root system of the World Tree had been hollowed out to form a drydock. Thousands of Undead Laborers—skeletons with glowing purple eyes—swarmed over scaffolding. The air smelled of burning ozone, rotting marrow, and high-grade alchemy reagents.
Aris pointed a trembling finger at the massive, empty space in the center.
"We aren't building a ship of gold, Lin Chen. We are building a predator."
The Keel of the Leviathan
Aris wheeled himself to the edge of the viewing platform.
"System. Deploy Unit: Leviathan Ribcage."
[Inventory Access: Confirmed.]
[Material: Bones of the Trench Warden (Deep Sea Leviathan).]
[Quantity: 200 Ribs (20 Meters each).]
A rift in space opened above the drydock. Massive, black fossilized bones fell from the void, suspended by gravity magic.
"Assembly," Aris commanded.
The Undead Laborers moved with hive-mind precision. They caught the massive ribs. Using the World Tree's roots as cranes, they arranged the bones into a long, curved shape—the skeleton of a massive aquatic beast, inverted to serve as a hull.
"These bones withstood 5,000 atmospheres of pressure," Aris explained, his voice gaining strength as he worked. "Space is a vacuum. The pressure is negative. These bones won't just hold air in; they will laugh at the void."
He activated his Void Architect skill.
"Skill: Reverse Refinement - Fusion Welding."
Violet fire erupted from Aris's hands, streaming down into the pit. The fire licked at the joints where the bones met. It didn't burn them; it fused them on a molecular level, turning individual ribs into a single, seamless chassis of black organic steel.
The Skin of the Tiger
"Hull frame complete," Aris checked the schematic. "Now, armor."
He looked at the pile of scrap metal in the corner—the remains of the Titan Golems from the Iron-Thunder Empire.
"That metal is strong, but it's brittle," Aris noted. "It can't stop a Star-Laser."
He pulled out the Seal of the West (The White Tiger Rune).
"I need an alloy."
Aris tossed the White Rune into the Abyssal Forge that had been set up next to the drydock.
"Baihu," Aris projected his thought to the God of War, who was currently resting in the Western Mountains. "I need you to bleed a little."
A roar echoed telepathically. A stream of white, liquid killing intent flowed from the rune and mixed with the molten Titan-Iron.
The metal turned a terrifying, pale white color. It hissed with static electricity.
[Material Created: Tiger-Steel.]
[Properties: Reflects 30% of energy attacks. Damages anyone who touches it without permission.]
"Plate it," Aris ordered.
The Undead Laborers began to rivet the Tiger-Steel plates onto the Leviathan Bone frame. The sound was deafening—thousands of hammers striking in unison.
Slowly, the ship took shape. It didn't look like a pagoda or a jet. It looked like a sleek, armored shark, painted in matte white and bone black. It had no windows, only sensor arrays.
The Heart of the Dead
Hours passed. Aris drank a stamina potion to keep himself awake.
"The hull is done. The armor is done. Now... the Engine."
This was the hardest part. A spaceship needed a reactor capable of generating faster-than-light (or at least orbital) velocity.
Aris signaled Lin Chen.
"Bring me the Core."
Lin Chen walked to a secure containment unit. He pulled out a heavy lead box and opened it.
Inside pulsed a jagged, green sphere. It sounded like a thousand screaming ghosts.
[Item: The Soul Core (Rank: Divine).]
[Source: The Soul Warden (Underworld Gatekeeper).]
"This core powered a Gate between dimensions," Aris said. "It doesn't run on fuel. It runs on Entropy."
"But Master," Lin Chen hesitated. "Entropy destroys. If we plug that into the ship, it will eat the hull."
"Exactly," Aris grinned weakly. "Unless we feed it something else first."
Aris wheeled himself to the World Tree.
He placed his hand on the bark.
"I'm sorry, old friend," Aris whispered. "I need to borrow a branch."
[System Warning: Harvesting World Tree Biomass.]
[Consequence: Local mana density will drop by 10%.]
"Do it."
A massive limb of the World Tree, glowing with silver life-force, detached itself. It floated down into the drydock, slotting perfectly into the center of the ship.
Aris placed the Soul Core inside the hollowed-out World Tree branch.
HUMMMMMM.
The reaction was instant.
The green death-energy of the Core tried to eat the wood. The silver life-energy of the Tree tried to heal the rot.
They locked into a perfect, violent loop of destruction and regeneration.
[Reactor Online: The Cycle of Samsara.]
[Energy Output: Infinite (as long as the wood lasts).]
The ship shuddered. The glowing veins along the hull lit up—not with electricity, but with a ghostly, pale green fire. The landing gear lifted off the ground a few inches, hovering on a cushion of pure spiritual pressure.
The Christening
Aris sat back, exhausted but triumphant.
The ship was 200 meters long. It was a monstrosity of Necromancy, Biology, and Divine Metallurgy. It was a weapon built to violate the laws of the Heavens.
"It is ugly," Lin Chen commented, looking at the jagged bone-fins and the glowing green exhaust ports.
"It's beautiful," Aris corrected.
He looked at the stats.
[Vehicle Created: The Bone-Ark.]
[Class: Void-Corvette.]
[Speed: Mach 20 (Atmosphere) / Sub-Light (Space).]
[Armor: Tiger-Steel (Dao Severing Resistance).]
[Engine: Samsara Drive.]
[Weapon Systems: None (Yet).]
"It needs a name," Aris said.
He thought about the enemies waiting above. The 'Beast-Tamer'. The Golden Pagoda. The arrogance of the Gods.
"We are the rebellion," Aris whispered. "We are the thing that crawls out of the grave to drag the gods down."
He looked at the ship.
"Christen it the Naglfar."
[Name Accepted: The Naglfar.]
(Lore Note: In Norse mythology, Naglfar is the ship made of the fingernails of the dead that carries the army of chaos to Ragnarok.)
The Problem
"Master," Lin Chen interrupted the moment. "We have a ship. We have an engine. But... we have no guns."
Aris frowned. He looked at the empty weapon mounts on the hull.
"The Pagoda-Ship has a Star-Cannon," Aris admitted. "If we fly up there and try to ram them, they will vaporize us before we get close. We need a main gun. Something that can pierce a Divine Shield."
"We used all the Divine Seals for the Titan form," Lin Chen noted. "They are on cooldown. We can't use them as ammo."
Aris tapped his chin. He looked at the Underworld Gate swirling in the corner of the room.
"We need a projectile that is so heavy, so dense, that no shield can stop it."
He remembered the Trench of Silence. He remembered the Heavy Spirit-Mercury.
"No," Aris realized. "That's too slow."
He looked at his own hand. He looked at the Void Qi.
"I need a focus point. I need a lens."
Suddenly, the elevator dinged.
General Thorne stepped out. He was holding a small, wooden box wrapped in velvet.
"Aris," the General said, walking onto the platform. "The Emperor told me you were building a weapon. He said... he found something in the Royal Archives. Something from the First Era."
Aris took the box. He opened it.
Inside lay a single, jagged shard of Black Crystal. It looked like obsidian, but it seemed to absorb the light around it.
[Item Identified: Shard of the Fallen Star.]
[Origin: Unknown.]
[Properties: Anti-Magic. Any Qi that touches it is nullified.]
"The First Emperor found this in a crater," Thorne explained. "No blacksmith could forge it. No fire could melt it. It has sat in the vault for a thousand years."
Aris touched it.
His Void Qi reacted instantly. The shard hummed.
[Analysis: This is not a rock. This is a fragment of a 'Black Hole'.]
Aris closed the box, a terrifying smile spreading across his face.
"We have our gun."