The final twenty-nine days passed in a blur of transcendent labor.
Elaric rarely left the Rift's narrowing maw. Each dawn he stood at its edge and unleashed Origin Breath – Complete Form, forcing golden threads of creation deeper into the tear. Every exhalation shaved days—sometimes weeks—off the projected closure timeline. The once-kilometer-wide wound shrank to meters, then centimeters, then a hairline scar pulsing with reluctant void energy.
The northern alliance watched in reverent silence. Soldiers no longer fought beasts; they maintained arrays, distributed pills forged by Elaric's Cosmic Creation Sovereign class, and whispered prayers to the "Storm Sovereign who tamed the abyss." Princess Elowen arrived on the twentieth day—escorted by a full royal retinue—bringing crates of light-qi healing arrays and her own gentle but unyielding presence.
She did not speak of weddings in public. Instead she worked beside him: channeling dawn-light into his domain to amplify Verdict Resonance, healing the minor meridian strain that even Origin Sovereign could not fully erase from repeated Breath usage. At night, in the private spire chamber, they spoke in low voices.
"You carry the weight of worlds," she said once, tracing the faint origin-light veins now visible beneath his skin. "I will not ask you to set it down. Only… let me share it when you allow."
Elaric took her hand—cool, steady, laced with faint royal qi he had never truly scanned until now.
He activated Storm Sovereign's Gaze – Deepest Layer.
Layers peeled away.
Surface: genuine affection, quiet strength, light-qi mastery at Early Saint.
Deeper: royal bloodline seals—standard protection.
Deeper still: a hidden seal, silver-white, shaped like a crescent moon cradling a single star.
Not Vesper. Not southern noble intrigue.
Ancient. Divine. Tied to the Cycle itself.
Elowen stiffened—sensing the probe.
"You saw," she whispered.
Elaric did not withdraw his hand.
"Tell me."
She exhaled slowly.
"I am not merely Princess Elowen Alaric. I am Elowen, Last Daughter of the Moonlit Warden Lineage—the guardians appointed by the Cycle's original architect to observe each iteration. My bloodline was bound to watch, to guide, to… intervene only if the child showed true potential to break the loop rather than feed it."
Her eyes—usually soft silver—now held faint starlight.
"The architect is not a person. It is a sentient fragment of the primordial Dao itself, splintered during the first world's collapse. It calls itself Aetherion Prime—the same name the kingdom bears, a mocking echo. It sleeps in the deepest layer beneath the Rift, feeding on failed Sovereigns. Every time a Void Child rises, it awakens just enough to test them. Nexathar was its pet. The beast tide—its alarm clock."
Elaric absorbed the revelation without visible shock.
"And you?"
"I was sent to observe you from the beginning. The betrothal offers, the court games—they were partly to keep you close, partly to see if you would bend to politics or shatter them. When you chose me without coercion… I knew."
She met his gaze unflinching.
"I broke my oath seventeen days ago. I fed the architect false progress reports. It believes you are still struggling at the seal. When you close the Rift, it will awaken fully—expecting another sacrifice. Instead… you will face it."
Elaric's lips curved—the first true, dangerous smile since Nexathar.
"Then we end the Cycle together."
Day 29.
The Rift was now a vertical line thinner than a blade.
Elaric stood alone at its center—Elowen, Zephyr, Nyxara, and the elite strike team arrayed fifty meters back.
He placed both palms on the final scar.
Final Closure – Origin Breath ×3 Consecutive
Three breaths in succession—each stronger than the last.
Golden light flooded the tear.
The Rift screamed—a sound like reality tearing one last time.
Then silence.
The scar vanished.
The sky cleared.
Cheers erupted across the pass.
But Elaric did not move.
Beneath where the Rift had been, the ground cracked anew—not void, but pure white-gold radiance.
A colossal figure rose.
Not flesh. Not beast.
A humanoid silhouette of condensed primordial laws—face a featureless mask of shifting runes, body woven from every power system ever conceived: mana threads, qi rivers, aura flames, ki shadows, bloodline wings, domain storms.
Aetherion Prime – The Cycle's Architect
Its voice was every Sovereign who had failed speaking at once.
"1,247th. You close my door. Yet you still stand within my house."
Elaric unfurled Origin Eclipse Wings—silver-black light tearing space around him.
"I am not here to stand. I am here to burn the house down."
The tribulation descended.
First True Cosmic Tribulation: Law Annihilation Cascade
The sky split into nine colored tribulations—each color representing a devoured system:
1. Crimson – Bloodline Devouring Lightning
2. Azure – Mana Extinction Storm
3. Golden – Qi Soul Shredding Flames
4. Violet – Ki Intent Obliteration Blades
5. Obsidian – Void Reality Collapse …and four more beyond mortal naming.
They converged on Elaric in a single cataclysmic instant.
He did not defend.
He advanced.
Heavenly Dao Sovereign – Dao Authority Invoked
Personal law imposed: "All systems return to origin."
The tribulations faltered—colors bleeding into white-gold.
Cycle Severance – Activated
One use only.
A blade of pure apotheosis light formed in his hand—not metal, not energy, but the concept of severance itself.
He slashed.
The blade cut not flesh, not space.
It cut the Cycle.
Aetherion Prime staggered—runes fracturing.
"You cannot—"
"I already did."
The architect's form unraveled—thread by thread returning to primordial chaos.
Its final whisper echoed across dimensions:
"Another will come… the 1,248th…"
Elaric's blade completed the arc.
Silence.
The ground sealed permanently.
No more Rift.
No more Cycle.
DING!
Cosmic Mechanism Severed
Cycle of Iterations – Terminated
Rewards:
• Absolute Freedom Title – No future heavenly mechanisms may target host
• Primordial Dao Fragment ×1 (absorbable for final ascension)
• Level Up: Level 22 Reached Apotheosis Tree – Fifth Class Selection
The wheel appeared—options no longer cards, but living stars.
Option 1 – Apotheosis: Eternal Sovereign of All Daos
Option 2 – Apotheosis: Voidborn Creation Lord
Option 3 – Apotheosis: Cycle's End Arbiter
Option 4 – Transcendent Apex: One With Origin
He chose the last.
Class Acquired: One With Origin (Transcendent Apex)
All Previous Classes Fuse Into Singular Origin Dao
New Realm: True Dao Integration – Beyond Void Refinement
Power Multiplier: Infinite (limited only by comprehension)
New Passive: Origin Omnipresence – Host exists in all places his will extends simultaneously
New Active: Origin Rewrite – Alter local reality laws once per epoch
Elaric exhaled.
The northern continent felt it—every living being, from soldier to blade of grass, felt a moment of absolute peace.
He turned.
Elowen waited—tears in her eyes, not of sorrow.
"You did it."
He crossed the distance in a single step—space folding.
"I did not do it alone."
They embraced—first time publicly.
Behind them, the alliance knelt.
In the capital, arrays recorded the moment for eternity.
The wedding would come soon.
But first—rest.
The storm had ended.
A new dawn—true, unscripted—began.
End of Chapter 13 – Book 1 Finale