The Judge's finger moved.
A thin thread-blade of starlight fell toward Shan Wei's throat. It was silent. It was clean. It was made to end a life without leaving a mess.
The Causality Court stamped once, like a drumbeat.
"EXECUTION THREAD: CONFIRMED."
Shan Wei did not step back.
He lifted two fingers, slow and steady, like he was placing a ruler line on a map. Prismatic light gathered at the tips of his fingers and became a thin edge. It did not look big or scary.
But it felt wrong to the Court.
It felt like someone trying to cut the writing inside a book.
Shan Wei spoke one calm word.
"Sever."
His fingers moved.
Not a swing.
Not a slash.
A simple crossing motion.
The prismatic edge touched the falling starlight thread-blade.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the starlight thread-blade shook.
A cracking sound filled the Court, like ice breaking on a frozen river.
The starlight blade split.
It split into two pieces.
It did not shatter into dust. It simply… separated, like a rope cut clean.
The two halves fell to the floor like dead light.
The Court went silent.
Even the spirals above the Ledger Warden stopped for half a beat.
Then the Court stamped fast, loud, and angry.
"ILLEGAL THREAD CUT."
"FATE VIOLATION."
The Judge's eyes narrowed. His calm did not break, but something sharp entered his gaze.
"You cut a Judge's thread," he said.
Shan Wei's voice stayed even.
"You tried to cut me," he replied.
The Judge lifted his hand again. More starlight threads appeared, floating around his fingers like sharp hair.
"This is not a mortal battle," the Judge said. "You are inside law."
Shan Wei's eyes stayed cold.
"Then I will cut law," he said.
The words hit like thunder without sound.
The Silent Bell witness shook.
"He… he really did it," the witness whispered. "He cut a Judge."
The Court stamped, louder than before.
"IMMEDIATE TERMINATION."
The guillotine above Shan Wei dropped again at the same time as the Judge's new threads moved. Now it was not one blade.
It was many.
One from the Court.
One from the Judge.
A double execution.
Shan Wei's Overdrive flared. Seven afterimages appeared again, but the Court did not chase the "real body" this time.
It stamped a new rule.
"CUT ALL."
The guillotine split into seven lines, one for each afterimage.
Seven blades fell at once.
The Silent Bell witness cried out.
"No—!"
Shan Wei's mind stayed sharp. He did not panic. He did not waste energy.
He drew a formation in the air with three fast glyphs. Simple shapes, but perfect placement.
A prismatic triangle formed, then rotated.
The seven guillotines hit the triangle and slowed, like they were cutting into something that kept turning.
The triangle's edges started to crack, but it bought him time.
Time was everything.
Shan Wei lifted his hand again. His prismatic edge sharpened. This time, it did not cut the falling blades. It cut something else.
He cut the space under his feet.
Not the ground.
The connection line between "here" and "there."
The Court shook.
The Judge's eyes widened slightly.
"You are trying to step out of the Court through a gap you created," the Judge said.
Shan Wei did not answer.
He stepped.
The slit doorway Shan Wei made at the closing doors widened for half a heartbeat.
Cold starlight rushed in.
Shan Wei's body moved halfway into it—
Then the Judge moved faster.
A starlight thread wrapped around Shan Wei's ankle like a leash.
The thread pulled hard.
Shan Wei's body jerked back into the Court.
The guillotine lines fell again.
Shan Wei's rotating triangle formation shattered.
The blades sliced through prismatic light and grazed his shoulder.
A thin line of pain burned across his skin. Blood appeared, bright against his dark robe.
Shan Wei did not flinch.
But inside him, the sealed Heart slammed again, furious.
"LET ME OUT."
Shan Wei forced it down again with cold will.
"Not yet," he thought.
The Judge stepped closer.
His voice stayed calm, but it was colder now.
"Returning Prismatic One," the Judge said. "You are too dangerous to be allowed to grow."
The Court stamped.
"DANGER LEVEL: RISING."
The Judge lifted his hand and formed a starlight circle in the air. It looked like a ring made of pure rules.
"Bind," the Judge said.
The ring flew toward Shan Wei's body.
It was not meant to kill him.
It was meant to lock him.
At the same time, the Court stamped a new order in red-gold.
"ORDER SHIFT: SEIZURE."
The Silent Bell witness froze.
"Seizure…?" he whispered.
The Ledger Warden stamped the full line like a verdict.
"TAKE TARGET ALIVE."
The Judge's silver eyes stayed on Shan Wei.
"You hear that?" the Judge said. "The Court does not want your death now."
Shan Wei's eyes narrowed slightly.
"They want my cage," he said.
The Judge nodded.
"Alive," he said, "you can be studied."
That sentence was worse than "die."
It meant chains.
It meant experiments.
It meant being turned into a tool.
Shan Wei's aura darkened for one heartbeat, void energy threading through his prismatic light. His Overdrive burned steadier, not louder. Like a furnace closing its door.
"I will not be a tool," Shan Wei said calmly.
Outside the Court, Zhen's moving fortress kept pushing through the corridor. The Pavilion assassins tried one more ambush. Hidden contract blades shot from the side like rain.
Zhen's dome shifted again.
"REFUGE FORM: SECOND LAYER," Zhen announced.
A second shell appeared around the dome. It was thicker and heavier. It looked like a moving bunker.
The contract blades hit it and exploded into black sparks.
The bunker did not stop.
Zhen's voice was very serious.
"CONTRACT ATTACKS: ABSORBED."
Then he added, proud and blunt, "WE ARE STILL MOVING."
Xuan Chi's moon thread shield trembled. Her face went pale, but she lifted her hand anyway. Her breath came out white.
She froze a full lane in front of the fortress.
Not just a thin road.
A wide lane, like a frozen river.
The assassins tried to run across it.
Their feet stuck.
Their legs iced.
They fell.
For three breaths, the lane belonged to Xuan Chi.
For three breaths, she held back death.
Yuerin looked at her for one heartbeat.
"Good," Yuerin said.
Xuan Chi's lips trembled.
"I… I can still help," she whispered.
Behind her, the moon shadow grew a little clearer. It was still not a full moon. But it was no longer just a faint idea.
It was becoming real.
Far from them, inside a white cage of time, the Silent Bell envoy stood trembling. Time rings tightened around his body. A monk's cold voice echoed again.
"Break the vow," the monk said. "Or be erased."
The envoy's bell shook in his hand. His fingers tightened until they bled.
He remembered Shan Wei's calm words.
"I will come."
The envoy's lips parted.
He spoke, voice shaking, but firm.
"I will not break," he said.
The time rings tightened hard.
Pain hit like knives.
The envoy screamed, but he did not beg.
The monk's voice turned colder.
"Then your name will be removed."
A bright line of white light appeared above the envoy, like a pen scratching a name out of a book.
The envoy's bell cracked.
A thin crack ran across it like a broken promise.
But the envoy kept holding it.
He whispered through pain.
"Shan Wei… come."
Back on the battlefield, Yuerin's shadow mark pulsed.
She felt it.
The Pavilion leader was not gone.
They were moving through an escape path, following shadow roads.
Yuerin's eyes sharpened.
"I have you," she whispered.
She turned toward the direction the mark pulled, shadows wrapping around her like a cloak.
The Fortress could escape.
But the thread-map could not be allowed to vanish.
Not now.
Not when the Court had confirmed the consort threads were "lost."
Inside the Court, the Judge's binding ring reached Shan Wei.
It snapped toward his chest.
Shan Wei lifted his prismatic edge again.
He did not cut the ring itself.
He cut the line that made the ring "allowed."
He cut the permission thread.
"Fate Severance," Shan Wei whispered.
His fingers crossed once.
The binding ring jerked in mid-air and stopped, like a puppet whose strings were cut. It fell to the floor, powerless.
The Judge's eyes narrowed more.
"You can cut permission," he said slowly.
Shan Wei's voice stayed calm.
"I can cut what you depend on," he said.
The Court stamped again, furious.
"SEIZURE MUST SUCCEED."
The Court's doors slammed tighter. The slit doorway Shan Wei made began to close.
The Judge lifted both hands. Starlight threads spread out and formed a net.
A net meant to catch Shan Wei alive.
Shan Wei looked at the net. He looked at the guillotine. He looked at the closing doors.
Then he did something that made the Silent Bell witness gasp.
Shan Wei lowered his hand.
He stopped cutting.
He stopped resisting for one heartbeat.
His prismatic light pulled inward, like he was compressing it.
The Judge's eyes sharpened.
"What are you doing?" the Judge asked.
Shan Wei's voice was quiet.
"Preparing," he said.
Inside him, the sealed Heart roared again.
The Heart did not want to wait.
It wanted to bite.
It wanted to break.
Shan Wei's will held it down like chains.
But his Overdrive began to change.
The seven colors tightened, then turned sharper, like seven blades stacked together.
The air around Shan Wei grew heavier. Not messy. Not wild. Heavy like a throne room when an Emperor stands.
The Court stamped in warning.
"POWER SPIKE: DETECTED."
The Judge's calm finally cracked a little.
"Stop," the Judge said.
Shan Wei lifted his gaze.
His eyes were cold gold.
"I told you," he said.
"I cut back."
Then, behind Shan Wei's body, the prismatic emperor shadow began to form again.
Not fully.
Not endgame.
But enough to make the Court's spirals shake like frightened insects.
The shadow raised one hand.
The Court trembled.
The Judge's starlight net froze in mid-air.
And Shan Wei's sealed Heart whispered a name inside him—soft, hateful, and old.
"SILENT BELL…"
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2025
All rights reserved.