The Elysium fleet descended like a swarm of metallic locusts, their plasma cannons carving molten trenches into the Azure Dragon ruins. Li Wei stood at the epicenter, the Skyrend Spear humming in his grip. Golden lightning crackled from its blade, but the weapon felt wrong in his hands—a live wire of power that seared his meridians and whispered promises of annihilation.
Kara ducked behind a shattered pillar, her mechanical eye projecting tactical holograms. "Shields are down! We need to move!"
Li Wei ignored her. The Oculus shard in his chest pulsed, syncing with the spear's entropy. He thrust the weapon skyward, unleashing a shockwave that vaporized a dozen drones. But the backlash tore through him, fissures in his skin glowing white-hot. Blood-silver vapor hissed into the air.
Veyra's flagship materialized above, its hull a grotesque fusion of black steel and writhing Prisoner-flesh. Her voice boomed through the ruins, warped by the Eighth Core's power: "You cling to relics, Sovereign. But relics break."*
The spear's blade darkened, entropy spreading like ink. Li Wei's vision fractured:
Past: The first Sovereign driving the spear into the Prisoner's heart, his own disciples screaming as their cores fueled the seal.
Future: Himself, the spear embedded in Kara's chest, the Prisoner laughing through his lips.
"Li Wei!" Kara tackled him as a plasma barrage obliterated the ground where he'd stood. Her prosthetic arm sparked, its hydraulics failing. "Snap out of it!"
He blinked, the visions receding. Veyra descended, her body a nightmare of obsidian scales and glowing lotus sigils. The Eighth Core in her chest pulsed, its tendrils lashing at the air.
"Give me the spear," she demanded, "and I'll let her live."
Kara fired her pistol point-blank. The plasma bolt disintegrated against Veyra's chest. "Dream on."
Li Wei roared, channeling the spear's duality—golden qi and black entropy collided in a maelstrom. The blast hurled Veyra into the ruins, but the spear shattered in his hands, its blade fragmenting into shards that embedded themselves in his flesh.
The sky split. The Prisoner's voice echoed through the rift: "Mine."