CHAPTER 79: FINALE

[Legacy Item 3: Relic - Shroud of Forgotten Echoes]

[Description: A conceptual artefact woven from the silence of the Labyrinth’s slain echoes. When worn, it completely conceals your presence, aura, and spiritual signature, rendering you undetectable to all forms of scrying and spiritual sense below the Divine realm. Your existence cannot be probed.]

A fourth item appeared, a sphere of swirling, multi-coloured light that pulsed with the essence of every element.

[Legacy Item 4: Omni-Elemental Seed]

[Description: A convergence of all fundamental, rare, and legendary elements. By absorbing this seed, you will gain a perfect affinity with all elemental paths, allowing you to bond with any element you encounter without conflict.]

Finally, the voice spoke one last time, its words resonating deep within Rhys’s dantian space.

[Legacy Item 5: Divine Bestowment - The Genesis Core]

There was no description. The moment the words appeared, a torrent of pure, primal energy shot from the void and slammed into Rhys’s body.

It was not an attack; it was an infusion. The energy went straight to his dantian space.

’Huh?’ Rhys raised his brows.

[Analysing the Genesis Core to redevelop the core most suitable for the host.]

[Burning a considerable amount of lifespan to create an Ascendent Core.]

[Your Dantian has been deemed a worthy vessel. It will now be reforged. The System will facilitate this evolution, transforming your mortal core into an Ascendent Core, capable of housing laws and concepts far beyond the mortal realm.]

’The whole Labyrinth... a Title that amplifies my Origin... a perfect stealth tool... affinity for all elements... and an Ascendent Core?’ Rhys thought, his mind reeling.

He had come here seeking strength, and he had been given a universe.

The spiritual energy in the surroundings started to pour into his body. He could feel the level restrictions in the Labyrinth being removed.

He held back the urge to break through as the female voice, the Labyrinth’s will, spoke again in his mind.

[Bond with the core, Sovereign. Make this world your own.]

Without hesitation, Rhys reached out and placed his hand on the swirling sphere of the World Core.

The moment he touched it, the Core dissolved into a stream of pure white light and flowed into his body. It did not settle in a dantian; it merged with his very soul.

He felt a sudden, absolute connection to everything around him. He could feel the fine sand of the desert, the cold water of the sunken city, and the starlit void of the Sanctum.

They were no longer just places; they were a part of him.

[World Core has been successfully bonded. The Labyrinth of Aethel is now the Host’s personal domain.]

[New Function Unlocked: Domain Storage. The Host can now store all summoned Ashen Marionettes within the World Core. They will reside within the Labyrinth’s various regions until summoned.]

’That’s nice!’

Obtaining a personal space removed the logistical nightmare of storing his army. He could now carry his entire legion within himself, a hidden kingdom ready to be unleashed at his command.

His gaze, cold and sharp, shifted from the rewards floating before him to the living disciples of the great families still scattered across the plaza.

A killing intent, pure and simple, formed in his mind.

They had seen too much. They had seen his Origin Skill. They had seen him command the dead. They knew he was the exiled son of the great Kaelen.

If they were allowed to leave with this knowledge, his life outside this Labyrinth would be an endless series of hunts and ambushes.

He no longer feared the great families. But the world was an ocean and would have larger fish elsewhere. Some of these large fish might never want an anomaly like him to exist.

The simplest solution to this was to erase them.

As if sensing his thoughts, the Ashen Behemoth behind him raised its gigantic head. It let out a roar that shook the entire Labyrinth.

The raw power in that roar slammed into the disciples like a physical blow.

The Behemoth was now a Titan. Unlike the deceased Stone Golem, it was alive.

A dead Titan was already a terror to teenagers like them; hell, even their ancestors could not fight against one.

And this Behemoth was alive and heeded his commands.

Anya Sterling was instantly snapped out of her stupor.

Despite not getting the legacy, the rewards she had received for participating in the Labyrinth were enough to improve her strength by leaps and bounds.

She was satisfied with them.

A helpless sigh escaped her lips as she saw the man... looking at them in the way a predator stares at its prey.

She knew what he was thinking. She would have done the same in his position.

She made a decision. She bit her finger, hard. Blood welled up, and she held it to the air.

"I, Anya Sterling," she shouted, her voice clear and unwavering, "swear upon my blood and my very soul, that the secrets I have witnessed today shall be sealed within me for eternity.

I will not speak of the true identity of the one known as Rhys, nor of the impossible power he wields.

Should I break this vow, may my soul be shattered into a thousand pieces, may my bloodline be cursed to wither and fade, and may I never find peace in the cycle of reincarnation.

Let the heavens be my witness and the laws of this world be my judge!"

The other disciples, seeing her decisive action, quickly followed suit. One by one, the heirs and their followers bit their fingers and repeated the blood oath, their voices a desperate chorus in the silent plaza.

[They have taken a Soul Oath,] the System confirmed in Rhys’s mind. [It is bound by the laws of this universe. If they try to leak anything, they will die.]

Rhys nodded, the killing intent in his eyes receding. It was a practical solution. He had no particular desire to slaughter them if it was not necessary.

With a single thought, he exercised his new authority as the Sovereign of Aethel.

A vortex of white light opened beneath the feet of every disciple from the great families. They let out cries of surprise as the light enveloped them, and in the next instant, they were gone.

He had kicked them out.

[...]

He was alone once more in the silent, empty plaza.

Well, not entirely alone.

Rhys slowly turned his gaze towards the horizon. The Titan was still there. Its mindless, endless march had stopped.

Its purpose, to walk its pre-determined path, was fulfilled now that the central island had been moved.

But its echo remained.

He had saved the central island, but the Titan itself was still a force of destruction, a mindless remnant of a bygone era.

He could leave it be. He could exit the Labyrinth now, return to the real world with his unimaginable rewards.

But a new thought, a greedy, ambitious thought, sparked in his mind.

The Titan was a dead being. An echo. Its body was composed of a material that existed outside the laws of the mortal world.

’Since every echo here now hears my commands...’

A slow, terrifying grin spread across his face. He had a World Core. He had an evolving Origin Skill. He had an army of the dead.

But he did not have a Sovereign for that army.

He began to walk, his steps steady and confident, towards the walking mountain. He followed its path of destruction, island hopping across the void until he stood on the last island before the Titan’s next step.

He looked up at the colossal leg, a pillar of black rock and dead starlight that blotted out the sky. He felt its immense, passive pressure, a force that would have crushed him into dust just a few days ago.

He knelt down, placing his hand on the fractured crystal ground. He closed his eyes and reached out with his will.

His domain, the Epoch of Cinders, expanded as a wave of pure authority that covered the entire Labyrinth.

He felt the Titan’s lingering consciousness, a faint, sleeping ember in a mountain of dead power.

He focused an unimaginable amount of lifespan into a single, audacious command. A command which would overturn the whole world in the future.

"Arise..."

"End of the Volume 1: The Sunken Labyrinth"