The reactor chamber trembled as the mechanical golem rose from the shadows, its form a grotesque amalgamation of celestial steel and raw, crackling energy. Towering three times Li Tian's height, its body resembled a jagged mountain range fused with gears, pistons, and veins of glowing amber crystal that pulsed like arteries. Primal energy—a volatile fusion of earth and fire—radiated from its core, warping the air into heatwaves that scorched the walls. Its face was a featureless obsidian plate save for a single vertical slit glowing crimson, a baleful eye that locked onto Li Tian with predatory focus.
***Intruder.***
***Eradicate.***
The voice was not a sound but a vibration, a subsonic growl that rattled Li Tian's teeth. He tightened his grip on the dagger, the Celestial Core in his chest flaring in response to the golem's primal aura. Behind him, Elder Qiang retreated to the chamber's edge, his fire sigils flickering weakly. "Its energy is antithetical to the Core's! You cannot overpower it—*outthink* it!"
Li Tian didn't respond. The golem moved.
---
**First Movement: Stone and Flame**
The golem's fist slammed into the ground where Li Tian had stood, fracturing the reactor floor into a web of glowing fissures. Molten rock bubbled up, hissing as it met the chamber's chilled air. Li Tian rolled aside, his dagger scraping against the golem's leg. Sparks flew, but the celestial steel left no mark.
*Too hard. Need to find the weak point.*
The golem's amber crystals flared. From its back erupted tendrils of molten stone, lashing like whips. Li Tian dodged, but one grazed his shoulder, searing through leather and flesh. He hissed, channeling the Core's energy to numb the pain. The wound glowed silver, healing—but slower than usual.
***Weakness: Sustained combat.***
***Probability of survival: 12.3%.***
The golem's eye pulsed, analyzing. Li Tian lunged, aiming for the crystals. The dagger struck one, and the chamber echoed with a deafening *crack*. The crystal splintered, leaking viscous amber fluid. The golem roared, backhanding Li Tian into a wall.
"Tian!" Elder Qiang hurled a fire sigil, but the flames dissipated against the golem's hide.
Li Tian pushed himself up, blood trickling from his temple. The shattered crystal was already regenerating. *Primal energy self-repair. Stars damn it.*
---
**Second Movement: Dance of the Damned**
The golem's chest plates shifted, revealing a cluster of revolving amber cores. Primal energy gathered, condensing into a sphere of molten rock and white-hot plasma. Li Tian sprinted, the sphere detonating behind him. The blast wave hurled him forward, his ribs cracking against a steel pillar.
Elder Qiang's voice cut through the chaos. "The cores! They're its power source—destroy them!"
Li Tian wiped blood from his eyes. The golem's chest had resealed, but the cores' glow still pulsed beneath its armor. *Timing.*
He feinted left, baiting the golem into a downward strike. At the last second, he pivoted, driving his dagger into the gap between its chest plates. The blade sank deep, and he channeled the Core's energy in a concentrated burst.
The explosion tore the dagger from his hand and flung him backward. The golem staggered, its chest plates blown open, two cores shattered. Amber fluid geysered, hardening into jagged spikes that impaled the walls.
But the remaining cores pulsed brighter. The golem's wounds sealed with molten stone, and its eye narrowed.
***Adaptation initiated.***
***Threat reassessment: Critical.***
---
**Third Movement: The Cost of Clarity**
The golem's movements changed. No longer brutish, it fought with chilling precision. Its fists became projectiles, detaching and rocketing toward Li Tian on trails of fire. He ducked and weaved, but one grazed his thigh, tearing muscle.
Elder Qiang hurled a talisman—a jade disk etched with suppression runes. It stuck to the golem's leg, and for a moment, the creature faltered.
"Now!"
Li Tian leapt onto the golem's back, climbing toward its head. The amber crystals seared his hands, primal energy scorching his qi. He reached the obsidian faceplate and drove his fist into the crimson slit.
The golem's shriek split the air. Li Tian's hand burned, flesh melting against the energy beam erupting from the eye. He screamed but held on, the Core in his chest flaring brighter than ever.
***Cease.***
***Cease.***
***Cease.***
The voice fragmented, the golem thrashing. Li Tian tore his hand free, clutching a shard of the crimson lens. The golem's movements turned erratic, its strikes wild.
"The cores!" Elder Qiang shouted. "Finish it!"
Li Tian dropped, landing in a roll. The golem's chest plates were still open, the remaining cores exposed. He reached for his dagger—gone, lost in the earlier blast.
No time.
He slammed his bare hands into the cores, channeling the Celestial Core's energy directly into the primal matrix.
---
**Finale: Convergence and Collapse**
Light erupted—gold and amber clashing in a cataclysmic whirlwind. The chamber shook, steel melting, stone vaporizing. Li Tian's vision whited out, his body floating in a void of pure energy.
***Why do you fight?***
The voice was different now—not the golem's, but deeper, older. The primal energy itself.
*To protect.*
***You lie.***
***You hunger.***
***Like him.***
Images flooded Li Tian's mind—the Magic Emperor, young and idealistic, forging the first Core. Then older, maddened, consumed by his ambition.
*I'm not him.*
***You carry his legacy.***
***His sin.***
Li Tian roared, pushing back. The light inverted, collapsing into a singularity.
---
When the dust settled, the golem lay in pieces, its cores dark. Li Tian knelt amidst the wreckage, his hands charred to the bone, the Celestial Core's light dim and erratic.
Elder Qiang limped over, his robes singed. "You… you fused the energies. That should have killed you."
Li Tian's voice was a raw scrape. "Almost did."
The chamber's far wall had split open, revealing a vault sealed with a hexagonal lock. The golem's final defense.
Li Tian stood, swaying. "Open it."
Elder Qiang placed his palm on the lock. Ancient mechanisms groaned, and the vault slid open. Inside lay a pedestal of black diamond, holding a prismatic crystal—a primal Core, its surface swirling with storms and magma.
But beside it rested a skeleton in tattered imperial robes, a scroll clutched in its bony hand.
Li Tian took the scroll. The words were the Magic Emperor's, penned in desperation:
*"I see now. The Cores are not a path to ascension—they are a chain. A chain that will bind the world to my hubris. Destroy them. Destroy it all."*
The chamber shuddered, the city's death throes intensifying.
Elder Qiang's face paled. "We need to leave. Now."
Li Tian pocketed the primal Core, its heat searing through cloth. "Not yet. There's more to find."
But as they fled the collapsing chamber, the scroll's warning burned in his mind.
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