Chapter 135: The Living Weapon

Chapter 136: The Living Weapon

BOOOOM!

A massive, jagged pillar of lightning descended from the darkening ceiling, screaming with the fury of a dying sun.

Asher didn’t flinch. He swung Myriad Forge in a wide, punishing arc.

CLANG!

A concentrated wave of golden sword intent tore through the electrical pillar, bisecting the strike. The resulting explosion rocked the entire archive, sending stone shards whistling through the air like shrapnel.

Jules emerged from the billowing ozone and smoke. His breathing was heavy, ragged, yet his expression was one of pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

"This power..." He let out a low, unstable laugh, staring at his glowing palms. "I can feel everything. Every atom. Every spark."

His lightning surged again—violently erratic. For a fraction of a second, the silver arcs turned pitch-black, smelling of grave soil and ancient decay.

CLANG!

Myriad Forge thrashed violently in Asher’s grip. Asher looked down at the blade, his eyes widening.

A faint, glowing golden rune had manifested near the crossguard, pulsing with rejection.

The sword wasn’t merely vibrating anymore. It was reacting to a fundamental impurity.

"Jules..."

Jules frowned, his head tilting at an unnatural angle.

"What is it now, Asher?"

Asher raised Myriad Forge until the tip pointed directly at Jules’s heart. "My sword has never been wrong about the scent of an enemy."

Jules’s face twisted. "An enemy? You’re calling me an enemy? After everything?"

Asher’s gaze hardened into iron. "I don’t know what happened to you when you touched that golden energy."

He lowered the blade slightly, his aura expanding until the floor tiles beneath him began to glow.

"But whatever that treasure is doing to you..." His golden Metal Qi erupted in a majestic, towering flare.

"...I’m not letting it take you."

"You think you can stop me?!" Jules roared.

BOOM!

His lightning exploded outward in a chaotic dome. High above them, the crystalline sphere began rotating at a frantic, blurring speed. Thick streams of golden energy poured into Jules’s meridians, feeding the corruption.

On the palace walls, ancient, blood-red runes began to crawl across the basalt.

[INTEGRATION PROCESS — 17%]

Nobody noticed the faint, ghostly inscription appearing on the surface of the ancient platform.

Except Seana.

Her dark eyes narrowed behind the porcelain flower mask. She could barely decipher the primordial characters, but their meaning was chilling.

[Host Compatibility: Increasing.]

Her grip tightened around her sword. This isn’t a treasure, she realized, her voice barely a breath. It’s an anchor. The palace is choosing him.

Suddenly—

BOOOOOOM!

Jules’s lightning exploded in a thirty-meter radius. The Argon sisters were thrown backward like ragdolls.

Ambiel slammed into a basalt pillar with a sickening thud. Annelle was sent tumbling across the floor, and Arvessa barely managed to raise her fiery blade before a stray bolt struck her directly.

CLANG!

The impact was so great that Arvessa’s sword was ripped from her hands, skidding across the floor.

"Arvessa!" Ambiel screamed, struggling to rise through her blurred vision.

Jules’s lightning gathered again, condensing into a singular, massive bolt that hovered directly above the youngest sister’s head.

Arvessa looked up, her pupils contracting. The sky was falling, and she couldn’t move.

BOOM!

A golden blur tore across the chamber. Asher appeared directly in front of her, his silhouette illuminated by the roar of the incoming strike. Myriad Forge met the lightning head-on.

CLANG!

The floor beneath Asher’s boots shattered into a crater. His knees buckled under the atmospheric weight, but his eyes remained locked on the dark storm above. Golden Qi surged through his veins, reinforcing his bones.

Inch by inch, the lightning pushed him back, his boots carving deep furrows into the stone.

Jules stared at him, his face a mask of distorted confusion. "Why won’t you fall? Why do you keep standing in the way of my greatness?!"

Asher gritted his teeth. "Because..." He lifted his head, a drop of blood trickling from his temple. "...you’re not the only one who has grown stronger in this hell."

Myriad Forge let out a deafening, metallic roar.

CLANG!

The golden sword intent exploded. The lightning pillar was shattered into harmless sparks.

Jules’s expression twisted into something monstrous. And somewhere deep inside his chest—within the core of his very soul—something dark smiled.

Neither Jules nor the others knew it yet, but the palace had already found its perfect, hollowed-out host.

[INTEGRATION PROCESS — 23%]

THUMP.

[Sector Four — The Core]

Lothe’s eyes snapped open, his pupils dilating as he sensed the sudden shift in the palace’s energy grid.

"Twenty-three percent..."

Professor Sy looked over at him, alarmed by the sudden paleness of Lothe’s face. "You detected it? What’s happening?"

Lothe slowly stood up, his deep-purple robes fluttering in the cold draft. "The palace is integrating a host."

A heavy pause hung in the air.

Then his expression turned glacial. His hand tightened around the hilt of his Void Spear. "And whoever it is..." Lothe whispered, "...the palace seems very interested in making sure they don’t wake up."

[Back at Sector Three]

BOOM!

The pressure from Jules’s lightning continued to bear down on Myriad Forge. Asher’s boots skidded backward through the rubble, his golden Qi straining against the overwhelming, chaotic force.

Behind him, Arvessa remained frozen in shock. The black-streaked lightning was only inches from her face.

"Asher!" Ambiel cried out, desperately reaching for her whip, which lay several meters away in the dust.

Annelle tried to crawl toward her sister, but a secondary crack of lightning forced her back into the shadows.

Jules stood at the center of the platform, a silhouette of silver and black. He stared at his vibrating palms with manic delight.

"This power..." He whispered. "I’ve never felt this much Qi before. It’s like the world is finally bowing to me."

Another surge erupted.

BOOOOM!

Asher’s feet sank deeper into the basalt. His expression hardened into iron. "Jules! STOP!"

Jules only laughed. "Why? Because you’re afraid? Because you realize you can’t catch up to me anymore?!"

"You’re going to kill them!" Asher roared, gesturing toward the Argon sisters.

For a brief, flickering second, a flash of human confusion appeared in Jules’s eyes. Then, he shrugged with chilling indifference. "They should have moved."

Arvessa’s eyes widened. "Asher..."

Her voice was trembling, a sound that cut through the noise of the storm.

Asher heard it. His eyes became colder than the void.

"That’s enough."

CLANG!

Myriad Forge released a thunderous, metallic roar that seemed to command the very air. The golden sword intent exploded outward in a shockwave.

The lightning pillar shattered like glass.

BOOM!

Jules was thrown backward, his boots carving deep lines into the stone as he skidded away. He looked down at his arm. A thin, precise cut had appeared across his silk sleeve. His smile vanished instantly.

"You cut me."

Asher slowly lowered his sword, his posture perfectly poised. "I did."

Jules touched the damaged fabric, his expression becoming increasingly ugly. "You actually dared to injure me."

"As I said..." Asher raised Myriad Forge until it was level with his eyes. "I’m not letting you hurt them. Not like this."

Jules’s eyes narrowed into black slits. Something inside his mind—the shadow that had taken root—whispered a single, chilling command: Destroy him.

The thought felt so natural, so right, that Jules didn’t even question it. His fingers curled into claws.

"Fine." His voice turned to absolute ice. "Then I’ll destroy you first."

BOOOOM!

Jules vanished.

Asher’s pupils contracted.

CLANG!

Myriad Forge intercepted a lightning-coated fist at point-blank range. The impact sent a shockwave through the chamber that blew the dust clear. Jules twisted his wrist in mid-clash, and a second lightning strike materialized from Asher’s blind spot.

Asher ducked.

The attack sliced through a lock of his black hair. He countered immediately, his sword sweeping upward in a blinding golden arc.

Jules blocked with both hands, his silver-black lightning forming a jagged shield.

BOOM!

The two elemental forces collided. Jules was forced backward, but Asher pursued him relentlessly.

One strike. Two. Three.

Each clash was like a mountain collapsing.

As the fight progressed, Asher noticed something horrifying. Jules’s attacks weren’t just getting stronger; they were becoming purely instinctive.

He wasn’t thinking about his footwork. He wasn’t calculating his Qi output. His body was reacting on its own, guided by the ancient malice of the palace.

He’s fighting like a construct, Asher realized.

Jules suddenly twisted his body mid-air, a jagged blade of black-tinged lightning forming along his forearm. He slashed.

Asher blocked, but the force sent him crashing through a basalt pillar.

BOOM!

"Asher!" Ambiel screamed.

Jules didn’t pause. He raised his hand toward the ceiling, and hundreds of lightning threads condensed into glowing, lethal spears.

[Lightning Burial.]

SHHHH—!

The spears shot forward in a synchronized volley.

Asher rolled across the ground, the spears piercing the stone behind him with explosive force. One grazed his shoulder.

PCH!

Blood splashed across his black robes.

"ASHER!" Arvessa’s voice broke.

Asher pulled the lightning-shard from his shoulder, ignoring the searing pain. He looked at the blood on his fingers, then at the unhinged man standing across from him.

His expression became completely, terrifyingly calm.

"That’s enough."

A blinding golden light erupted from Myriad Forge. Asher slowly released his grip on the hilt.

The sword didn’t fall. It remained suspended in the air beside him, humming with sovereign intent.

Jules frowned, his dark eyes flickering. "What are you doing? Giving up?"

Asher stared at him, his hands empty but his spirit never stronger.

"I’ve already understood the truth of this realm," Asher said. Myriad Forge began to rotate slowly, golden Qi wrapping around the blade like a living mantle. "I don’t need to hold my sword to command its edge."

The sword suddenly vanished.

BOOM!

Jules barely raised his arm in time as Myriad Forge slammed into his lightning barrier with the force of a falling star.

CLANG!

Jules was sent flying.

Asher raised one hand. Myriad Forge instantly changed direction in mid-air, pursuing Jules through the smoke.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Three consecutive strikes. Jules blocked the first, dodged the second—but the third cut across his chest.

Blood appeared on his robes. Jules stared at the red stain. His eyes widened. "You..."

Asher’s expression remained glacial. "This is my path." Myriad Forge returned to his side, hovering like a silent guardian. "I don’t need to chase my sword anymore. I only need to tell it where to go."

Jules’s face twisted with demonic rage. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

BOOOOM!

Silver lightning exploded from his palm, brighter than anything before.

Then—

CRACK!

A thick, undulating strand of pure, pitch-black lightning emerged from the center of the blast.

Jules’s eyes widened. For a moment, the blackness seemed to startle even him. He stared at his hand. "What... what was that?"

Nobody answered him. The crystalline sphere on the platform pulsed one final time.

THUMP.

Jules’s body convulsed. His lightning exploded in a mindless, violent wave.

BOOM!

The Argon sisters were forced backward by the atmospheric pressure.

Only Seana remained standing, her crimson robes fluttering in the hurricane-force winds. Her eyes never left Jules.

She could feel it now. The integration was reaching a tipping point. The palace wasn’t just giving him power—it was hollowing him out, making room for something far older to step inside.​