The ruins of the Magic Emperor's city loomed around Li Tian like the ribcage of a long-dead leviathan, its skeletal spires clawing at a sky choked with ash and static. The air hummed with the residual energy of collapsed machinery, a dissonant symphony that set his teeth on edge. In the heart of the desolation, Li Tian knelt beside a fractured forge—a relic of the emperor's ambition, its stone basin still stained with the ghostly shimmer of celestial alloys. The Primal Core pulsed in his hand, its amber light throbbing in time with the distant rumble of tectonic fury.
*This will work*, he told himself, though the Core's whispers hissed otherwise.
Su Lin and Zhang Wei stood guard at the forge's entrance, their weapons glinting in the erratic glow of the city's dying power grid. Elder Qiang hovered nearby, deciphering glyphs etched into the forge's obsidian frame. "The emperor designed this chamber to meld celestial and primal energies," he said, tracing a serpentine rune. "But the process is… unstable. One misstep could detonate the entire city."
Li Tian set the Primal Core into the forge's ignition slot. "Then we won't misstep."
The forge awoke with a guttural roar, flames erupting in hues of gold and amber. The chamber trembled as ancient machinery groaned to life, pistons hammering and gears grinding as if the city itself were resisting reactivation. Li Tian withdrew a shard of starsteel from his satchel—a relic salvaged from the canyon trial—and placed it into the basin.
"The compass requires a conduit," he said, more to himself than the others. "Something that can channel both energies without fracturing."
Elder Qiang nodded. "The starsteel is inert. You'll need to fuse it with a living resonance."
Li Tian didn't hesitate. He pressed his crystalline hand—the one fused with the Primal Core's energy—against the starsteel. The forge's flames surged, enveloping his arm. Pain lanced through him, white-hot and primal, as the starsteel dissolved into liquid metal that coiled around his fingers like a serpent.
"Tian!" Su Lin's voice cut through the roar.
"Stay back!" he gritted out. "It has to bond with *me* first!"
The molten starsteel seeped into his crystalline veins, merging with the Primal Core's essence. His vision fractured—half the chamber, half a memory not his own. The Magic Emperor stood at this very forge, his hands steady as he fused a Celestial Core with a living disciple's spine. ***Power demands unity***, the emperor's voice echoed. ***Flesh and metal. Ambition and sacrifice.***
Li Tian wrenched himself free of the vision, gasping. The starsteel had solidified around his arm, forming a gauntlet etched with pulsating glyphs. The Primal Core's light now flickered within the metal, a heartbeat of amber trapped in celestial steel.
"Now the compass," he muttered, tearing the gauntlet free. It left his skin raw, bleeding silver and amber.
Elder Qiang handed him a disc of petrified wood—a relic from the scorched forest. "The needle. It must be attuned to the Nexus."
Li Tian set the disc into the forge. The flames, now a volatile mix of gold and amber, consumed it, reducing the wood to ash—all but a single splinter that glowed with captured starlight. He fused it to the gauntlet, the splinter snapping upright like a dagger.
The compass quivered in his grip, its needle spinning wildly before lurching north.
"It's alive," Zhang Wei said, uneasy.
"It's *hungry*," Li Tian corrected.
---
**The Talons' Gambit**
The explosion rocked the chamber before the compass could be tested. Dust rained from the ceiling as crimson-clad figures poured through the cracks—Talons, their masks cracked and bloodied, led by the scarred woman.
"You didn't think we'd let you keep the Core, did you?" she sneered, hurling a grenade of condensed void energy.
Su Lin intercepted it with a qi-inflected kick, sending it skyward. It detonated midair, shredding the chamber's remaining supports. "Get the compass clear!" she shouted, lunging at the Talons.
Li Tian clutched the compass to his chest, its needle now blazing like a miniature sun. The Talons' leader charged him, her daggers gleaming with venom. He raised the gauntlet, and the compass shrieked—a sound that split the air into prismatic shards.
***DANGER***, the compass intoned, its voice a fusion of Li Tian's and the emperor's. ***EVADE.***
Amber light erupted from the needle, carving a path through the chaos. Li Tian sprinted after it, the compass tearing through walls and Talons alike. Behind him, Su Lin and Zhang Wei carved a retreat, Elder Qiang hurling suppression sigils to seal their pursuers.
They burst into the wasteland beyond the city, the compass leading them toward a fissure rent by primal energy. The Talons hesitated at the edge, their leader snarling. "You'll die in there!"
Li Tian glanced at the compass. Its needle pointed unerringly into the abyss.
"Jump!"
---
**The Compass's Trial**
The fissure was not a chasm but a tunnel—a throat of liquefied stone and lightning. The compass's light shielded them, its amber aura repelling the maelstrom. Yet with every step, Li Tian felt the gauntlet's grip tighten, the Primal Core's energy seeping deeper into his bones.
"Where the hells are we?" Zhang Wei shouted over the storm's roar.
"Between," Li Tian said, though he didn't understand. The compass's needle trembled, responding to invisible ley lines.
A shape coalesced ahead—a bridge of crystallized energy, its surface reflecting a dozen fractured realities. In one, the group lay dead at the Talons' feet. In another, Li Tian stood atop a mountain of corpses, the Nexus Core burning in his chest.
***CHOOSE***, the compass commanded.
Li Tian stepped onto the bridge. The reflections shattered, leaving a single path: a jagged ascent through a glacier's heart.
The compass's light dimmed, its needle freezing.
Su Lin studied the glacier's visage. "The Bastion. It's close."
Li Tian nodded, though the word *close* felt hollow. The compass had carved a path, but the price was etched into his arm—the starsteel gauntlet now fused to his flesh, its glyphs pulsing with borrowed time.
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