The Nova Emperor did not waste a single second.
His heart was pounding against his ribs like a trapped bird.
The vision he had seen through the Third Prince, the way Noah's voice had hijacked a royal body from across the stars, haunted him.
He fled the Elder Hall and made his way toward the forbidden sector of the capital, where the air grew thin and the gravity felt ten times stronger.
He reached the Palace of the Ancestor, a structure made of ancient white jade that shimmered with a cold, ghostly light.
Without hesitation, the Emperor of the most powerful human empire in the universe dropped to his knees on the hard stone path.
"Ancestor! I beg for your guidance!" he cried out, his forehead touching the ground.
"Our race is on the brink of disaster!"
He was about to launch into a long explanation of the events in Aetherion, but a voice drifted out from the jade gates.
It was a voice that sounded like grinding stones, ancient and tired, yet filled with a terrifying clarity.
