Chapter 37: The Primordial Discord
The transition from the blood-stained arena of Agon to the Sixth Gate felt like being thrown into the heart of a dying star and then plunged into a frozen ocean. The physical world ceased to have a single shape. They were standing on a platform of "Frozen Time," suspended in a realm where the four fundamental elements—Fire, Water, Earth, and Air—were not just forces of nature, but titanic, sentient storms of pure energy.
This was Elementum, the Gate of the Primordials.
[System Notification: Entering the Sixth Gate - Elementum.]
[Status: The World-Soul is Fragmented. All elemental resistances are negated.]
[Warning: The Architects have released the 'Primal Engines'.]
"The ground... it's breathing," Isabella whispered, her emerald eyes reflecting the chaotic dance of magma and ice that surrounded them.
The sky above was a swirling vortex of emerald lightning and obsidian clouds. Huge boulders the size of cities floated in the air, crashing into each other only to turn into liquid rain and then solidify into diamonds in a matter of seconds.
"This is the laboratory where they test the durability of matter," Cyan said, his voice deep and resonant. He stood at the edge of the platform, his mantle flickering like a shadow against the blinding elemental chaos. "They are trying to crush us with the very weight of the universe."
Suddenly, the four elemental storms began to converge. They didn't form a monster; they formed a Colossus of Discord. Its head was a hurricane, its torso a volcano, its arms were tidal waves, and its legs were moving tectonic plates.
"STAY... WITHIN... THE... LIMITS..." the Colossus roared, a sound that was less of a voice and more the grinding of planets.
"Limits are for the creators who fear their creations," Cyan replied, his dual-colored eyes glowing with a sinister brilliance.
The Colossus struck. A massive arm of liquid magma and solidified stone descended toward them. Azrael and Clara moved instinctively, but the heat was so intense it began to melt their very armor.
"Master! We can't pierce it!" Clara shouted, her spear glowing white-hot as she struck the magma. "It's too vast! Every time I cut it, it just flows back together!"
"Then stop trying to cut it," Cyan commanded. He stepped forward, his feet leaving cracks of violet corruption on the frozen-time platform. "Isabella, Elara, channel your essence into me. I need to become the 'Void' that space cannot fill."
The two Goddesses placed their hands on Cyan's back. He felt the rush of their loyalty and power—a mixture of cold emerald logic and dark, fleeting shadows.
Cyan unleashed his newest skill: [Vessel of the Fallen].
Behind him, the shades of the champions he had defeated in the Arena—the Saint of the Lost Age, the Berserker, and the Stalker—manifested as ethereal, violet wraiths. But they weren't just soldiers; they were "Sinks."
"Go," Cyan whispered.
The shades dived into the elemental body of the Colossus. They didn't attack; they began to "Infect." The violet corruption spread like a virus through the magma and the ice. The hurricane-head of the Colossus began to turn a murky indigo, and the volcanic chest started to leak black soot instead of fire.
"I am the King of Sin," Cyan's voice boomed, his presence expanding until he seemed to dwarf the elemental giant. "And the greatest sin of nature... is its predictability!"
[Skill Combined: Law-Breaker + Sovereign's Remorse.]
Cyan raised his hand, and the very air around the Colossus began to crystallize into "Black Diamonds"—the physical manifestation of frozen grief. These diamonds pierced the elemental forms, locking the magma and the water together in a jagged, agonizing stasis.
The Colossus let out a final, world-shaking shriek as its core—a sphere of pure, four-colored energy—began to crack.
Cyan leaped into the air, his hand transforming into a claw of pure Abyssal Mana. He reached into the center of the storm and grabbed the Core of Elementum.
"This energy doesn't belong to the Architects," Cyan said, his eyes locking with the fading consciousness of the elemental giant. "It belongs to the life that suffers under it. I am taking it back."
He crushed the Core.
A massive explosion of white and violet light swept across the realm, silencing the storms and stilling the floating continents. The world of Elementum was no longer a chaotic laboratory; it was a silent, dark wasteland of frozen crystals.
[System Notification: The Sixth Gate - STILLED.]
[Core of Elementum Acquired.]
[Evolution: The Host's body is now 'Trans-Elemental'. You are immune to natural temperature and pressure.]
[New Skill Unlocked: 'Architect's Decay' - You can now accelerate the aging and rot of any physical structure.]
Cyan landed softly on the now-silent ground. He looked at the Core's essence as it merged with his own, feeling the weight of the universe becoming a little lighter, and his own power becoming infinitely more heavy.
"Six down," Cyan whispered, his voice carrying through the frozen silence. "The halfway point. The Seventh Gate is next... the Gate of the Silent Witness."
He turned to his Goddesses. They were exhausted, their clothes torn and their faces smudged with elemental ash, but their eyes held a devotion that was almost frightening. They weren't just following a king anymore; they were following a god.
"Rest for a moment," Cyan said, his tone unusually gentle. "The next gate... it won't be a fight. It will be a judgment. And I am the one who will be on trial."
As he spoke, the bridge of light—Lyra's bridge—began to glow with a deeper, more somber hue, leading them toward a gate that looked like a massive, unblinking eye.