The Bell Throne Keeper stood with its chest open like a broken temple door.
Inside its metal ribs floated the second Nail Core.
It was darker than the first. Heavier. Like it had been fed with laws, names, and years of stolen fate. The single word carved on it—EMPEROR—glowed softly, as if it was breathing.
Qi Shan Wei did not blink.
His silver hair moved in a slow wave behind him as the tomb wind turned sharp. His robes fluttered, torn at the edges, but his stance was still steady. His golden eyes watched the core the way a hunter watches a hidden blade.
The Ice Phoenix spirit hovered above the altar, wings spread, frost-fire dripping like sparks.
"That thing…" the spirit said, voice rough. "It is not a tool. It is a cage."
The Keeper's voice came out like cold metal scraping stone.
"Touch it," it said. "And the world will finally hear your true place."
Shan Wei's answer was calm.
"The world does not decide my place," he said. "I do."
He stepped forward.
He placed his fingers on the Emperor Nail Core.
The moment his skin touched it, the tomb went silent.
Not quiet.
Silent.
Like sound itself was locked in a box.
Then the Emperor Nail Core pulsed—hard, deep, and cruel.
A pressure slammed into Shan Wei's chest. It was not pain in flesh. It was pain in meaning. It tried to bend the story of his life like a page being forced into the wrong shape.
His heart ring—the Prismatic Heart—reacted at once. A prismatic pulse burst out, washing the chamber in faint rainbow light.
The Keeper's bell-shadow shivered.
The Nail Core's runes flared, and a voice spoke inside Shan Wei's mind.
Not his voice.
Not the Keeper's.
A cold "law voice," like a judge reading a final line.
"FALSE PRISMATIC EMPEROR."
The words were not just words.
They tried to become reality.
Shan Wei felt the Nail grab at his title. It tried to pull the idea of "Emperor" away from him, like ripping a name tag off his soul. It tried to replace it with something poisonous—something the Court could control.
For one heartbeat, Shan Wei saw a flash.
A throne of bells.
A sky full of pale chains.
A version of himself standing on a platform, expression blank, eyes dull, wearing a crown that was not his.
A puppet Emperor.
A fake.
Shan Wei's jaw tightened slightly.
But his face stayed calm.
"Interesting," he thought. "So this is their method. They don't just kill. They replace."
The Nail Core pulsed again, harder.
"ACCEPT.""CONFIRM.""SUBMIT TITLE."
The words stabbed at his mind like hooks.
The Ice Phoenix spirit screamed.
"Don't let it finish the naming!"
The Keeper stepped forward, bell-shadow rising.
"Once the Nail names you," it said, "the Court will treat the name as truth."
Shan Wei's eyes sharpened.
He moved his hand—still touching the Nail—into a writing motion.
Not a slow motion.
A clean one.
He drew a Prismatic Glyph in the air with his fingertip, carving it through pressure and silence. The glyph was not fancy. It was simple and strong.
It meant one thing:
I AM.
The glyph flashed like a small star.
The Nail Core shook.
The law voice inside his mind tried again.
"FALSE PRISMATIC EMPEROR—"
Shan Wei spoke one calm sentence aloud, cutting through the silence with pure will.
"My name is Qi Shan Wei."
The tomb trembled.
The Nail Core flared—angry—because the sentence was an anchor. It was not a title. It was a truth.
The Prismatic Heart ring in Shan Wei's chest pulsed again, and this time the rainbow light formed a thin circle around his body, like a hidden crown made of seven colors.
The Keeper's bell-shadow leaned forward like a beast.
The Ice Phoenix spirit roared, frost-fire blasting down.
But the Nail Core did not stop.
It changed tactics.
The law voice turned colder.
"IF NAME IS ANCHOR…""THEN STEAL ANCHOR."
A new rune appeared on the Nail Core:
THREAD HOOK.
Shan Wei felt it instantly.
The Nail Core was reaching outward—past the tomb, past the altar, past the cracks in the world—to grab something linked to him.
It was trying to pull on the consort threads.
It was trying to use love as a handle.
Shan Wei's eyes narrowed.
Outside, the world answered.
The sky scar above the battlefield widened like a wound.
And a second instant execution spear, thinner and faster, began to form.
In the Refuge Tunnel lane, Zhen stood like a fortress gate, arms raised.
His Imperial Shield Matrix shook from the first spear's impact. The crack on his armor spread a little more. His chest core burned crimson, bright enough to light the fog.
The second spear formed overhead.
Yuerin stared up at it, her face hard.
"That one is worse," she whispered.
Xuan Chi stumbled, hands still on her head.
The Moon Crown shadow above her shook and twisted. It was trying to lock down again, like a monster slamming a lid shut on a box.
Inside her mind, the returning name echo slammed into her in waves.
Xuan…Chi…Remember…
Xuan Chi cried out, not because she wanted to, but because the pain was too sharp. Her knees hit the ground.
Yuerin grabbed her shoulders.
"Look at me," Yuerin said.
Xuan Chi's eyes were wet and wide.
"I can't…" she choked. "It feels like my head is breaking."
Yuerin's voice turned low and fierce.
"It is breaking," she said. "Because the crown is fake. Because the lock is wrong. Because you were made to fit a shape that is not yours."
Xuan Chi shook.
"What if I die?" she whispered.
Yuerin's eyes did not soften. But her grip tightened—steady, real.
"Then die awake," Yuerin said. "Not asleep."
Xuan Chi stared at her like she didn't understand.
Yuerin leaned closer.
"You have one choice," she said. "Pain now, truth forever… or no pain, and you become their perfect moon doll."
The Moon Crown shadow hissed and pressed down harder.
Xuan Chi screamed.
The frost moon behind her flared huge, then flickered like a dying lantern.
Frozen law scars spread wider across the ground, making even the air feel stiff.
Zhen turned his head slightly.
"XUAN CHI STATUS: NEAR CORE AWAKENING," he reported.
Then he added, very blunt, like he was reading a simple manual:
"PAIN IS REQUIRED."
Yuerin snapped her eyes at him.
"Not helping," she hissed.
Zhen paused.
"I DO NOT KNOW 'COMFORT' PROTOCOLS," he said. "I ONLY KNOW 'SURVIVE' PROTOCOLS."
Even in that moment, Drakonix made a small, shaky sound.
A tired, offended chirp.
He was on one knee, wing half-spread, breathing hard. His prismatic scales were dimmer now, like a rainbow after rain.
He looked at Zhen and let out another weak sound—almost like he was arguing.
Zhen glanced down.
"DRAGON IS ANGRY," Zhen stated.
Drakonix's eyes narrowed, and he nudged the ground as if to say: I'm not "dragon," I'm Drakonix.
Zhen answered flatly.
"CATEGORY: DRAGON-PHOENIX," he said. "ANGER CONFIRMED."
Drakonix huffed and almost fell over again.
Yuerin did not laugh. But the corner of her mouth twitched for one breath.
Then her eyes went back to the sky.
The second spear was almost complete.
Zhen raised his arms higher.
"IMPERIAL SHIELD MATRIX," he said. "FIFTH LAYER: CORE BURN."
Yuerin's eyes widened.
"Zhen—don't—"
Zhen's voice stayed calm.
"IF I DO NOT BLOCK," he said, "YOU DIE."
He paused, then added in the same blunt tone:
"I PREFER YOU ALIVE. IT IS MORE EFFICIENT."
The second spear dropped.
It moved like a line of cold light.
It hit Zhen's shield.
This time there was no big explosion.
There was a deep, crushing sound, like a mountain pressing down.
Zhen's shield bent inward.
His core screamed.
A red crack flashed across his chest plate.
His knees sank into the ground.
Still, he held.
Drakonix roared—broken, but real—and his contract scorch mark in the air flared brighter, showing the hidden command signature again.
COURT COMMAND SIGNATURE: SILENT BELL.
Yuerin whispered.
"So the Judge is a puppet voice…"
Zhen's head tilted slightly, like he was thinking.
"THEN WE MUST CUT THE STRINGS," he said.
Inside the Bell-contract corridor, Yuerin's shadow-self stood before the bell door.
The door was smooth and pale, like moon stone, but it hummed like a bell about to ring. On it, one rune glowed:
EMPEROR.
The Silent Bell monk behind her spoke gently.
"Open it," it said.
The corridor around them tightened.
A floating clause appeared:
OPENING REQUIRES SPOKEN TITLE.
Yuerin's eyes narrowed.
A trap.
If she spoke, the corridor would own her words.
If she did not speak, she could not open the door.
The monk smiled faintly.
"Say it," it urged. "Say 'Emperor.'"
Yuerin's gaze slid to the Pavilion leader she dragged with her.
He was pale, shaking, still chained by shadow.
His eyes were full of fear.
He understood too.
He knew she was about to use him.
Yuerin did not blink.
"You sold lives," she said quietly. "Now buy a door."
The leader tried to speak, but his throat tightened.
The corridor whispered at him.
Say it.Agree.Open.
Yuerin lifted her shadow blade and pressed it lightly to his neck.
"Say the title," she ordered.
The Pavilion leader's lips trembled.
"I… I can't…" he whispered.
Yuerin's eyes went cold.
"Yes you can," she said. "Or you can become payment in a different way."
The leader swallowed hard.
Then he spoke, voice shaking:
"Emperor."
The moment the word left his mouth, the corridor lit up.
The word turned into law.
A chain of bell light snapped around the Pavilion leader's throat.
TITLE SPEAKER BOUND.
He gasped as the corridor drank his voice.
The door rune flared.
And the bell door opened.
Yuerin did not step in yet.
She watched the leader choke and tremble.
She leaned close and whispered, so softly it almost wasn't sound:
"Thank you."
Then she stepped through.
Behind her, the bell door began to close.
The leader reached out, desperate.
Yuerin did not look back.
The door shut.
The corridor swallowed his scream without sound.
Yuerin stood in a new chamber.
It was round and bright, like the inside of a bell.
And in the center floated a mirror-like plate made of pale law.
On it was a simple sentence, written in Silent Bell script:
THE EMPEROR TITLE CAN BE REASSIGNED.
Yuerin's eyes narrowed.
So the Monastery had a "title control room."
A place where they could rename kings, replace leaders, and rewrite the world's story like it was paper.
And Shan Wei was standing right under their blade.
Back in the Ice Phoenix Tomb, the Emperor Nail Core pulsed again.
Shan Wei felt the thread hook grab outward harder.
It reached toward the returning Xueyao shard line.
It reached toward Xuan Chi's name return path.
It was trying to use any "female thread" connected to him as proof that he was unstable—an obsession—something the Court could punish.
The Keeper stepped closer, voice low.
"You love too much," it said. "That is why you can be controlled."
Shan Wei's golden eyes turned colder.
"You misunderstand," he said.
He lifted his Heavenpiercer Ruler with one hand, still touching the Nail Core with the other.
He carved a formation circle around himself—fast, perfect, clean.
Not a combat formation.
A Truth Formation.
A formation that did one thing:
It forced the world to record the correct meaning.
He spoke, calm and sharp.
"My bonds are not chains," he said. "They are choices."
The formation lit up.
The Emperor Nail Core shook violently.
The law voice inside Shan Wei's mind screamed again:
"FALSE PRISMATIC EMPEROR!"
But this time, Shan Wei answered with a new prismatic glyph.
A glyph he had never used before.
A glyph born from anger, control, and pure will.
It meant:
SEVER CLAIM.
The glyph struck the Nail Core like a blade.
The Nail Core flared, and for one breath, Shan Wei felt the title hook weaken.
The Keeper's bell-shadow roared and slammed forward.
Shan Wei's Prismatic Flame erupted—crimson fire, golden lightning, and dark void energy swirling together—but he kept it tight, controlled.
No wasted power.
His flame formed a dragon outline behind him for a heartbeat, then compressed into his ruler.
He struck once.
The ruler hit the bell-shadow.
The tomb shook.
The Ice Phoenix spirit blasted frost-fire into the bell-shadow's side.
The bell-shadow cracked.
The Keeper staggered one step.
But the Emperor Nail Core did not fall.
Instead, it began to speak again—louder, meaner.
And this time, it tried a new move.
It tried to say the title out loud through the Keeper.
The Keeper's faceplate glowed.
Its mouthline opened, not like human lips, but like a rune gate.
A voice came out into the world.
"FALSE—"
Shan Wei's eyes flashed.
He moved like lightning.
He slammed his palm onto the Keeper's chest and pushed Prismatic energy into its core lines.
Not to destroy.
To jam.
He used formation logic like a knife inside a machine.
The Keeper's voice cut off.
The bell-shadow flickered.
The Emperor Nail Core screamed in silence.
Shan Wei spoke one cold sentence.
"You will not name me," he said.
Then he did something dangerous.
He grabbed the Emperor Nail Core with both hands.
The Nail burned his palms with law pressure.
It tried to bite into his fate again.
But Shan Wei did not let go.
He pulled.
Metal ribs cracked.
Runes snapped.
The Keeper shook violently like it was losing its heart.
The Ice Phoenix spirit roared, wings spreading wide to shield Shan Wei from the backlash.
Outside, Zhen's shield bent even more under the second spear's pressure.
Zhen's core flared so hard it looked like it might explode.
"CORE LIMIT APPROACHING," Zhen reported.
Then, very blunt:
"I WILL HOLD UNTIL I STOP."
Yuerin grabbed Xuan Chi's face again.
"Choose," she demanded.
Xuan Chi's whole body shook.
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
The Moon Crown shadow hissed and pressed down.
The returning name echo slammed up.
Xuan Chi opened her mouth.
And this time, her voice came out clear.
"I choose pain," she whispered.
The Moon Crown shadow froze.
For one breath, it didn't know what to do.
Because the crown only knew how to control people who begged for comfort.
Xuan Chi's frost moon flared behind her—stronger than ever.
A pale moon appeared, and inside it, tiny stars formed like ice sparks.
Her hair lifted slightly as frozen law moved around her like wind.
Her eyes sharpened.
And a single sentence formed in her mind, not given by anyone else.
Her own.
"I am Xuan Chi," she said.
The moment she said it, the returning name echo snapped into place.
A shockwave of moon-frost blasted outward.
The Moon Crown shadow screamed and cracked.
A piece of the crown shattered into pale dust.
The ground froze into a perfect circle again, but now it was deeper, cleaner, stronger.
Zhen's eyes widened slightly—rare.
"CORE AWAKENING TRIGGER… PARTIAL," he said.
Then, blunt again:
"SHE IS BECOMING REAL."
At the same moment, inside the tomb, Shan Wei ripped the Emperor Nail Core free.
The Keeper staggered, chest hollow, bell-shadow collapsing into smoke.
The Nail Core hovered in Shan Wei's hands, shaking like a trapped beast.
The word EMPEROR on it flashed.
And then it tried to write a new word over it:
FALSE.
Shan Wei's eyes turned sharp like a blade edge.
He carved one final glyph into the air.
A glyph made of seven colors.
A glyph that looked simple, but carried a terrifying meaning:
PRISMATIC CROWN — SELF-OWNED.
The glyph slammed into the Nail Core.
The Nail Core screamed.
The "FALSE" mark flickered.
For one breath, it weakened.
Shan Wei leaned close to it, voice cold and calm.
"You can try to pin me," he said. "But I was born under a comet. I was chosen by flame. I was bonded by fate."
He paused.
"And I am not your puppet."
The Nail Core pulsed violently.
Then, suddenly, it stopped resisting.
Not because it surrendered.
Because it recognized something.
A deeper echo.
A past-life imprint.
The Nail Core's surface lit up with a second hidden line of runes.
A sealed name tried to rise.
The tomb shook.
The Ice Phoenix spirit stiffened.
Outside, Drakonix's wing twitched.
Zhen's shield trembled.
Xuan Chi's moon flared again.
And the Nail Core whispered, almost lovingly, almost like it knew him from long ago:
"EMPEROR… RETURNING…"
Shan Wei's Prismatic Heart ring burned hot.
His eyes widened slightly for the first time in a long while.
Because the Nail Core wasn't only a weapon.
It was a message.
A key.
And it was about to speak the next name—
the name of the one who forged it.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2025
All rights reserved.