The sky cracked open a second time.
Not metaphorically.Not spiritually.
Literally.
A fracture spread across the heavens like a wound, dripping violet light.
From within it, something vast and coiled began to emerge.
The Frozen Chasm shook so violently that entire ice cliffs collapsed, plunging into bottomless mist.
Xueya staggered, still clutching Shan Wei's sleeve, her Lunar Frost Domain roiling dangerously just under her skin.
Yue Lian's knees buckled.
Jin Wei forced himself upright, servos grinding.
Drakonix dug claws into Shan Wei's shoulder, eyes wide and shining with terror.
The Echo Devourer's colossal head lifted toward the sky, amused.
"Ah… he sends another."
Shan Wei narrowed his eyes.
"Another… what?"
The Empress answered.
Her voice was too calm, and that made it worse.
"Another Zone King."
The Second Zone King Descends
The thing that emerged from the split sky was not a beast, not a puppet, not a ghost.
It was a serpent made of shredded karma.
A colossal, translucent dragon-serpent formed from hovering chains of golden and black script, coiling, twisting, rearranging itself every second as if constantly rewriting its own existence.
Wherever its body passed, symbols appeared and vanished:
罪 — Sin恩 — Merit契 — Contract命 — Fate
The air around it stank of burned incense and broken vows.
Yue Lian's face went white.
"That's—"
The Empress finished in a whisper:
"The Karmic Severance Serpent."
Her hands shook.
"Two Zone Kings… in the same zone… at the same time… This shouldn't be possible."
The Echo Devourer chuckled.
"Nothing is impossible when he interferes."
Shan Wei clenched his fists.
"The Calamity Heir."
A smooth, cold voice echoed through the serpent's empty skull:
"You learn quickly, Prismatic Child."
The Karmic Serpent's head turned—no eyes, just a swirling mass of karmic glyphs.
They all focused on Shan Wei.
He felt it.
A crawling, suffocating sensation as though every decision he'd ever made was being weighed and judged.
The serpent hissed.
Not with anger.
With recognition.
Threads Around His Soul
Invisible strings brushed against Shan Wei's skin.
He flinched.
Drakonix growled, snapping at thin air as though trying to bite them.
"Fwee—!!"
Yue Lian gasped.
"Fate threads—he's linking them directly to you!"
The Empress's pupils shrank.
"Not just fate."
She stepped closer to Shan Wei, eyes wide in raw alarm.
"Karma. Cause. Consequence. He's weaponizing everything you are."
Shan Wei gritted his teeth.
"What exactly does that mean for me?"
The Empress answered slowly, every word heavy:
"It means both Zone Kings are now partially feeding on your possible futures and your accumulated karmic weight."
Yue Lian's voice trembled.
"That's why they chose those two. One that devours your echo-futures… and one that severs your karmic ties."
Shan Wei's expression darkened.
"So one is trying to eat what I could become… and the other is trying to cut me off from everyone I care about."
The Echo Devourer's laughter shook the sky.
"You understand. Good.Despair more intelligently."
The Empress's Secret — His Soul is Wrong (In a Good Way)
The Empress stepped in front of Shan Wei.
"Qi Shan Wei, listen carefully."
Her voice dropped lower.
"You asked before why the Heir obsesses over you. Why his forces warp rules, pull Zone Kings, bend laws just to crush you now instead of later."
Shan Wei nodded warily.
"I remember."
She took a breath.
"No ordinary prodigy causes this much structural strain on a realm. Not even a future Emperor. A normal soul—no matter how talented—would not draw this kind of attention so early."
Xueya watched quietly, eyes still shimmering with unstable frost, but locked on Shan Wei's face.
"So what am I?" he asked.
The Empress's gaze softened with equal parts fear and… affection?
"You aren't a normal reincarnated prodigy, Qi Shan Wei."
She reached up, tracing a circle in the air.
Silver law-lines formed an outline of a soul.
Three layers.
Inner. Middle. Outer.
"Most souls have a single root. Maybe echoes of one past life. Maybe fragments."
Her finger touched the outermost circle.
"You have three consolidated soul cycles overlapping."
Yue Lian inhaled sharply.
"A tri-cycled soul… without fragmentation…?"
"That's impossible," Xueya whispered.
The Empress nodded faintly.
"Impossible for mortals, yes. For a Prismatic Constant… no."
Shan Wei frowned.
"Prismatic… Constant?"
She met his gaze.
"You are not just Qi Shan Wei of this era.You are also an echo of the first Prismatic Emperor,and the last one who fell in a future that no longer exists."
Silence punched the air out of the chasm.
Even the serpent's chains rattled uneasily.
Drakonix's little jaw dropped.
"Fwee…?"
Jin Wei's runes flickered, automatically logging data.
"MASTER SOUL STRUCTURE:NON-STANDARD.MULTI-CYCLE PRISMATIC SIGNATURE DETECTED."
Shan Wei's mind spun.
"I'm… both the first and last Prismatic Emperor?"
The Empress nodded.
"Your soul is a convergence of your origin and your end—reborn into a third cycle, trying to rewrite the story."
Yue Lian whispered in awe:
"No wonder fate and calamity are fighting over you."
The Calamity Heir's voice slid through their thoughts like a knife.
"Exactly.Which is why I must break you now… before you stabilize into something I can't erase."
Commander Qi Shan Wei — Battle Orders
The serpent descended, each segment of its body rewriting its own existence with glyphs as it moved.
The Echo Devourer's shadow expanded, swallowing what little light remained.
Two Zone Kings.
Both anchored to his soul.
Both designed to erase who he was and who he might be.
Xueya's fingers tightened on her sword. Her breathing was still irregular. The Lunar Frost Domain pulsed dangerously in her eyes.
Yue Lian's lightning arced over her arms, unstable.
Drakonix was exhausted, just barely suppressing Nirvana ignition.
Jin Wei was damaged from his earlier forbidden protocol.
The Empress was powerful—but limited, bound by rules.
Shan Wei inhaled.
Slow.
Steady.
His heartbeat found its rhythm.
He raised his voice.
"Everyone, listen."
It cut through the world like a clear bell.
The Devourer paused.
Even the serpent's movement slowed.
Shan Wei stood taller.
The air around him shifted, as if recognizing command.
"Jin Wei."
"MASTER."
"Focus purely on defense.You're our wall. Form a barrier between us and the Echo Devourer. Don't overextend."
"ACKNOWLEDGED.DEFENSE PRIORITY: MAXIMUM."
Golden runes spread around them, forming interlocking hexagons of protective light.
"Drakonix."
"Fwee…?"A small, tired sound.
Shan Wei's voice softened.
"Stay with me.We go with rhythm attacks only.Three-heartbeat bursts, then stop. No more full combustion. Understood?"
Drakonix puffed out his chest weakly.
"Fwee!!"("Okay!! I'll match your heartbeat!!")
"Yue Lian."
She straightened instantly.
"Yes!"
"You're our eyes.Track karmic shifts.Every time the serpent rewrites karma around me, I want you shouting it out."
She nodded sharply.
"Got it!"
"Empress."
He didn't add a title.
She didn't seem to mind.
"You can't fully interfere without drawing higher backlash. I get that. Stay at 70%. Seal the worst of the temporal bleed so Xueya and Drakonix don't overload."
She blinked.
"That's… a very precise guess."
Shan Wei shrugged.
"Felt like your limit."
A faint smile tugged at her lips.
"…You're correct."
"And Xueya."
She stiffened slightly.
"…Yes."
"You're our sword. But not as a storm—"
He reached out.
Placed his hand lightly over hers, steadying the tremor.
"—as a line."
She looked up, startled.
"A… line?"
"Infinite calm. Infinite precision. Cut what needs cutting—nothing else. Let the Domain exist, but don't drown in it. I trust you to hold that edge."
Her throat tightened.
"You… trust me that much?"
"More than that."
Her frost steadied.
Her pulse smoothed.
Her Lunar Frost Domain softened, shifting from explosive to controlled.
The Devourer watched them with something close to annoyance.
"You refuse to panic.How… tiresome."
The Karmic Serpent coiled tighter, its chains clinking.
The Calamity Heir's voice returned, coldly amused.
"Let us see if your little 'team' can stand against inevitability."
Shan Wei's prismatic aura flared—not wildly, but with sharp, disciplined focus.
"Let's find out."
Clash of Two Calamities vs One Defiance
The Echo Devourer struck first.
Its massive hand slammed down toward Jin Wei.
"BRACING."
Jin Wei's arms locked, rune-shields unfolding like layered petals.
BOOOOOOM—!!
The impact sent quakes through the entire chasm.
Jin Wei skidded backward, embedding his feet into the ice to hold ground.
"STRUCTURAL STRAIN: 64%.HOLDING."
Simultaneously, the Karmic Serpent lashed forward.
Not at their bodies.
At their shadows.
Chains of glowing script stabbed downward, sewing themselves into the silhouettes of Shan Wei and Xueya.
Yue Lian shouted:
"Right side! Karmic impact on your regrets—it's targeting your guilt!"
Shan Wei's chest tightened—
Memories tried to surface—Ling Mei dying, the Echo, the futures he'd seen—
He cut them off.
"Xueya, NOW!"
She stepped forward, eyes like twin pale moons.
Her sword moved once.
Just once.
A single line of frost etched across the air.
CHING—
The chain severed.
Half of the glyphs shattered instantly.
The serpent recoiled, writhed, then hissed in fury.
The Empress raised her hands—moonlight layers forming a dome just before a second karmic lash hit, diffusing it into harmless sparks.
Drakonix's breathing matched Shan Wei's.
One—two—three.
On the third heartbeat—
They attacked.
Prismatic flame leapt along Shan Wei's veins, bursting from his fists in synchronized arcs with Drakonix's tiny blasts.
Not wild.Not overburn.
Surgical.
Two Echo-Shan Weis disintegrated.
Three more cracked.
The Devourer growled.
"You grow annoyingly efficient."
It slammed both hands down.
Reality compressed—
Trying to force Jin Wei to collapse.
"PRESSURE INCREASING.ARMOR STRESS—CRITICAL.BUT—"
Jin Wei's core flared.
"MASTER STILL BEHIND ME.PROTOCOL: HOLD."
Shan Wei smiled faintly.
"Good."
Then he felt it—
A tug inside his chest.
The Karmic Serpent had shifted tactics.
Chains wrapped around his inner world, tugging at fragments of him that weren't from this life.
The first Prismatic Emperor.The last broken one.
They both stirred.
Yue Lian gasped.
"It's rewriting your past lives' consequences—!"
The Empress's eyes widened.
"That's… THAT'S FORBIDDEN EVEN FOR ZONE KINGS!"
The Heir's voice slid through, amused.
"If I break his karmic spine early, he never stabilizes enough to challenge me. Efficient, isn't it?"
Shan Wei sucked in a breath as pain lanced through his soul.
Like being flayed from the inside.
"If you're… trying to scare me…"
He raised his head.
Eyes blazing.
"…it's not working."
The Devourer and the Serpent both actually hesitated.
For a heartbeat.
And that was all he needed.
Prismatic Overdrive — Controlled Defiance
Shan Wei's aura spiked.
Not like before—not the wild, soul-ripping near-Forbidden Awakening triggered by the Fate Echo.
This was different.
Focused.
Refined.
He whispered within his heart:
Prismatic Overdrive…but only a sliver.
Seven lights ignited inside him.
Fire.Ice.Lightning.Void.Light.Shadow.Life.
They didn't explode outward.
They aligned, forming a spinning prism around his core.
His body lightened.His perception expanded.
The threads he couldn't see before—suddenly became visible.
Fate threads.Karmic lines.Echo paths.
All tied to him.
All feeding the Zone Kings.
Shan Wei exhaled.
"Found you."
He reached out—
Grabbed three of the thickest threads—
And yanked.
RRRIIIIIIP—!!
The Devourer roared in pain.
The Serpent thrashed, chains snapping.
The Heir's voice sharpened.
"…What did you just do?"
Shan Wei grinned despite the blood dripping from his nose.
"Cut off your best meal."
The Empress stared at him in open shock.
"You… severed external fate-thread conduits—without collapsing your own soul-line…"
Yue Lian whispered:
"That's… not supposed to be possible."
Drakonix puffed proudly.
"Fwee!!"
Jin Wei's runes brightened slightly.
"MASTER ADAPTIVE CAPACITY:UNMEASURABLE."
The Heir's voice lost a fraction of its calm.
"…You truly are a problem."
The Devourer glared.
The Serpent extended its chains again—
this time not toward Shan Wei—
but toward Xueya.
The Beginning of the Next Disaster
The serpent whispered in a hundred voices:
"If we cannot break you directly…we will break your anchor."
Chains shot forward.
Not at her body—
but at her soul frost.
Her Lunar Frost Domain quivered.
Her earlier instability returned with a vengeance.
Xueya gasped, clutching her chest.
"I—I can't—It's pulling—"
Frost swirled out of her uncontrollably—
forming spikes, spears, a blizzard.
Shan Wei's head snapped toward her.
"Xueya!"
The Empress cursed.
"It's trying to corrupt her Awakening and turn it against you!"
Yue Lian screamed:
"It's rewriting her as a future weakness—a chink in your fate armor!"
Shan Wei moved instantly.
"Jin Wei, wall left!Drakonix, rhythm blast on the serpent's tongue!Empress—seal her Domain overflow!"
They moved.
They obeyed.
But the chains were already wrapping around Xueya's Luna Domain—
turning the moon above her a sickly purple.
Her eyes dimmed.
She whispered weakly:
"Shan Wei…don't… come closer…I might… hurt you…"
He didn't slow.
He stepped right into the storm of unstable frost—
letting it slice his arms, his cheek, his robes.
He ignored all of it.
Hands outstretched.
"Then hurt me."
She froze.
"What…?"
His voice cut through the roaring ice.
"If something inside you must break," he said, eyes burning, "let it be against me and not yourself."
Her throat tightened.
Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, only to freeze before they fell.
"You… idiot…"
He reached her.
Took her hands.
Her frost stabbed into his palms.
It hurt.
It was fine.
"I'm not afraid of what you become," he said softly."I'm only afraid of you facing it alone."
The corrupted moon above her flickered.
The karmic chains stuttered.
The serpent reeled.
Yue Lian shouted:
"Emotion feedback—he's desynchronizing the karmic re-coding!!"
The Empress closed her eyes.
"…No wonder fate is terrified of you."
The Devourer snarled.
The Heir's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
"…Enough.Enough playing."
The Echo Devourer planted both hands on the chasm floor.
The Karmic Serpent coiled tightly around it like a ring of runes and chains.
Glyphs lit up across both their bodies.
Yue Lian screamed:
"They're—they're FUSING PROTOCOLS—!!"
The Empress went white.
"That shouldn't even EXIST as a concept—"
The Heir spoke one more time, voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere.
"I will crush both his futures and his bonds in one blow."
The two Zone Kings roared as one.
Reality warped.
All their power condensed into a single, horrifyingly dense orb of violet-black-gold energy—
hanging above, aimed straight at Shan Wei's heart.
Every instinct screamed:
If this hits, you don't just die.You are ERASED.
Shan Wei's eyes narrowed.
He squeezed Xueya's hands once.
"Trust me."
She stared at him, tears of frost in her eyes.
"I… always have."
He turned to his allies.
"Everyone—behind Jin Wei. Full defense."
The Empress's eyes widened.
"You can't be thinking—"
He smiled faintly.
"Yeah. I am."
Drakonix shook his head violently.
"Fwee—!! Fw-FWEEE!!"("No!! I just almost lost you!!")
Jin Wei rumbled:
"MASTER.THIS LEVEL OF IMPACT—UNSURVIVABLE."
Shan Wei stepped forward.
Ahead of them all.
Facing the converged calamity.
He whispered, half to himself, half to the universe:
"…Let's see if 'inevitability' can be negotiated."
He raised his hand—
Not to block.
To meet the attack.
The orb began its descent.
The Heir's voice was cold and absolute.
"BREAK."
Shan Wei smiled.
"Try."
The sphere fell.
The world held its breath.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2025All rights reserved.