The echoes of the last clash still reverberated in the air, yet Zhen stood unmoving—his breath steady, his eyes burning with ancient starlight.
Around him, the battlefield had shifted once more.
The Crimson Oracle's Temple emerged from the void like a mirage solidifying—floating above a spiraling sea of flame, its obsidian spires carved with runes in a language lost even to the system archives. Each rune bled faintly with red light, pulsing in time with a great, buried heartbeat.
Zhen stepped forward. Behind him, the fractured remnants of his temporary alliance—those who had survived the previous trial—watched in silence, awed and wary.
> "You feel it, don't you?" a voice whispered.
A figure emerged from the edge of the burning sea.
She wore robes woven from threads of blood and starlight, her face hidden beneath a porcelain half-mask etched with oracles. Her eyes shimmered with the knowledge of worlds past and yet to come.
> "The Chains of Origin lie here. And you, Outworlder, are the only one left with a fate deep enough to unbind them."
---
A New Trial — Vision and Sacrifice
As Zhen approached the temple, the voice of the system rang in his mind:
> ⬛ [Celestial System Update: Path of the Oracle Triggered]
⬛ [Warning: Mental resistance required. Illusions, timelines, and false memories may attack your soul.]
⬛ [Ranker Trial: Chains of Origin – Phase I Initiated]
Without hesitation, he stepped through the gate.
The world warped.
He was no longer Zhen of now, but Zhen of the past—a child, trapped in a collapsing village, watching unknown shadows devour his family. Then again, he was Zhen of a possible future, betrayed by a lover in exchange for power, his body pierced by a thousand spears.
> "These are not your memories… not yet," the Oracle's voice came.
> "But they could be. Every step forward, every fragment you claim, you draw closer to what the Multiverse wants of you. And what it may take."
---
Chains of Origin — The Guardian Awakes
In the heart of the temple stood an altar, and wrapped around it—chained and burning—was a being unlike any Zhen had seen.
It was massive, but fluid—its form shifting between dragon, serpent, phoenix, and man. Its eyes opened as Zhen approached, each iris containing a spinning galaxy.
> "Another seeks the Chains. Do you understand the cost, child of stars?"
Zhen didn't answer. He raised the Celestial Fang, its edge now etched with the flame runes of the Abyssal Forge. Power gathered in his body—a surge more immense than ever before.
The system responded in kind.
> ⬛ [Host has activated: Origin Unseal – Phase 1]
⬛ [Celestial Constitution: Evolutionary Bloodline Awakening at 18%]
⬛ [Warning: Host approaching Fragmented Deity Threshold]
---
Combat at the Edge of Time
The chained Guardian roared, shaking the temple to its core. Reality cracked. Firestorms erupted. Worlds bled into each other.
Zhen charged forward, stepping through illusions, slicing through copies of himself—some righteous, some corrupted beyond recognition.
His final blow met the Guardian's flame-clawed hand—collision of heaven-rending forces.
BOOM!
A new seal cracked.
> ⬛ [First Chain of Origin: Broken]
⬛ [Memory of the Crimson Oracle unlocked]
⬛ [Skill Gained: Timeless Echo – permits temporary rewind of self-state, 3-second maximum. 30-minute cooldown.]
---
New Path Unlocked — Divine Ranks Stirring
As the chained being vanished into nothingness, Zhen collapsed to one knee, panting. A new mark glowed on his arm—an ouroboros-shaped rune of silver fire.
But before he could even stand, the Oracle knelt beside him, whispering:
> "Your journey has reached the precipice. The next time you ascend… the Gods will notice."
Behind her, the stars shifted. And above the temple, three celestial thrones flickered into partial existence—watching.
The shattered fragments of the multiverse trembled, as if even time recoiled from the force that had just been unleashed.
Zhen hovered in the void, his figure bathed in the light of three converging celestial marks—one representing Sovereignty, one Rebirth, and the third... something ancient and forgotten, newly awakened.
Behind him, the remaining coalition forces barely stood. The sky had been ripped open by the collision of Chrono-Warlock Jaderas and Void Sovereign Il'taruun, whose bodies now lay buried beneath collapsing timelines and vanishing worlds.
But it wasn't over.
---
Zhen narrowed his eyes. His multiverse system flickered, then buzzed.
> [New Alert Detected: Dimensional Scar Unsealed.]
[System Warning: Ancient Sentience Detected — Identification: ???]
[Note: This entity is NOT cataloged within Multiverse Rank Structures.]
"...Uncataloged?" Zhen muttered.
The air trembled. From the depths of the dimensional scar, a hand emerged—gray, massive, and pulsating with bound runes long thought extinct. It wasn't just another enemy. This was pre-system. A Primordial.
A voice, devoid of form, rippled through the void:
"Zhen. Son of the Unwritten Line. You carry the mark of contradiction."
Zhen's pupils contracted. The system pulsed in response.
> [Triggering Defensive Protocols…]
[No match found. Overriding with Absolute Evolution.]
The System Core within him began glowing crimson.
---
Suddenly, a blinding chain of lights lanced from above—The Heavenly Tribunal.
High above, eleven celestial thrones emerged, seated by ancient silhouettes cloaked in laws older than rank itself. These were not Sovereigns. They were System Architects—beings responsible for creating the multiverse hierarchies.
One of them rose.
"Zhen of the Ascent Lineage," the Architect declared, his voice like a river of stars crashing against ancient shores, "you have triggered a convergence of fate threads that were meant to remain dormant. By stepping beyond your appointed role, you now face judgement... or transcendence."
Zhen raised his head calmly. "I was never meant to follow your script."
He activated the Heaven Piercer.
The black-and-gold halberd pulsed with triple-core resonance, enhanced by the essence of the Celestial Core fragment fused in Chapter 42. With a single slash, the divine chains of judgment shattered.
---
The Tribunal reeled.
"Impossible," whispered one of the Architects. "That weapon... it holds fragments of the First Will."
Zhen's system beeped again.
> [Hidden Upgrade Path Unlocked: Primordial Anomaly Ranker.]
[Do you wish to override Ranker Class Restrictions?]
[Y/N]
He didn't hesitate. "Yes."
The world spun. Runes danced. Blood from ancient stars poured into him. His skin cracked and reformed. His soul tore—then reknit with something far more ancient.
The Primordial Entity beyond the dimensional scar let out a long, low laugh.
"You remind me... of her."
A single name echoed in Zhen's mind:
"Lunaria..."
His mother?
The battlefield fell silent. Even the Architects paused.
---
Then chaos resumed.
The Forbidden Cluster collapsed. Worlds began fusing together. Streams of broken fate twisted into spirals of paradox. Zhen now stood at the epicenter of a war no longer limited by power, rank, or realm.
This was a war for the right to rewrite reality itself.
And only one being could hold the quill.
The moment Zhen's transformation completed, the space around him distorted—not shattered, but rewritten.
Where once there had been fragmented reality, now formed a new anchor realm, tethered to his will. Endless symbols floated in a spiral: remnants of laws from dozens of worlds, merging, converging, evolving.
And at the center, Zhen floated like a silent deity, wrapped in a golden-white halo interlaced with shadow runes.
> [You have successfully ascended as the First Primordial Anomaly Ranker.]
[New Title Acquired: Fate-Breaker. Reality Architect. Voidborn Son.]
[System Alert: The Multiverse Core is watching.]
Far above, hidden beyond the veil of layered dimensions, something stirred.
---
Inside the Ancient Palace of Origins, located in a timeless realm known as Elaria, three cloaked women stood before an eternal mirror. Their faces were hidden beneath veils of woven prophecy.
"He's awakened it," said the eldest. "The boy broke the Architect's chain. The anomaly class was never meant to re-emerge."
Another whispered, voice like silk on crystal, "We must summon her. The mirror of his soul—the one who carries the Echo Rune."
The third nodded. Her fingers reached into the veil and pulled forth a memory—not hers, but one buried deep in Zhen's soul.
A girl.
Silver-haired, laughing under a sky of burning leaves.
"Xueyin."
The name rippled across the void like a call to destiny.
---
Back in the battle-scarred void, the Architects weren't finished.
The eleventh throne, long empty, lit aflame.
From it rose a being not forged of matter, but of paradox—a form that flickered between past, present, and what should not be. His eyes were clocks. His weapon, a spiral of pages bound by golden ink.
"I am Archivist-King Varneth, last of the Timeline Keepers," he declared.
"You, Zhen, have unbound what should never have stirred. I offer you a choice: Bind yourself to my Clock Codex, and I will grant you eternal rulership across all ages—or resist, and fall to entropy."
Zhen raised the Heaven Piercer again. This time, it responded with a quiet hum—not just a weapon, but a voice.
"I exist to defy."
He slashed.
The timeline fractured.
---
In that instant, millions of parallel versions of Zhen awakened simultaneously across multiple mirrored worlds—each with different pasts, powers, and paths. Some were tyrants. Others saints. Some were never born.
But all shared one truth: they were being pulled… toward convergence.
> [System Alert: Dimensional Synchronization at 3%. Initiating the Path of the Multiverse Heart.]
Zhen's mind burned.
Visions surged into him.
A tower reaching beyond time itself. A girl crying beneath a sky of runes. A blade that split heaven but broke its wielder. And at the peak of it all—
A throne.
Empty.
Yet waiting.
---
He clenched his fists.
Whatever came next—Archivist-Kings, System Architects, Primordial Lords—it no longer mattered.
Zhen wasn't just a Ranker anymore.
He was the author of his own multiverse.
And it was time to write a new chapter.