Polar Day And Polar Night

The shattered core of the Source Flow space resembled the carcass of a devoured beast. Broken pale totem pillars leaned against the void at the edges of the remaining ice plains, spatial fragments drifting like black snow, silently vanishing into oblivion. Chenxiao stood at the heart of this desolate ruin, his form clad in cracked cryosteel armor, scarred with fissures like the charred aftermath of a conflagration. These were no longer wounds of erosion, but brands of power reborn. Deep within his eye sockets, pale flames burned steadily, their core tinged with a cold, profound cinder-glow.

His hand, veined with ember-like cracks, clenched emptily. A point of frigid, ashen light flickered and died between his fingers. The "Abyssal Corrosion" crisis within the Source Flow core had been forcibly suppressed and transmuted, using his own existence as the crucible and Terminus as the forge. The cost: this space's foundation lay nearly destroyed, Tang Xiao's final traces utterly extinguished, and the very roots of his own law-power were fissured with virtual embers. The gain: the "Virtual Ember Touch," brushing against the edge of the Void, and a keener perception... directed towards the Domain of Light.

"Time... to depart..."

The icy words echoed amidst the void fragments, devoid of sentiment. This place was now wasteland, no longer a cradle of power, but a cage.

*Hmmmm——!*

His form, etched with cinder-cracks, blurred and turned translucent, merging into the deathly backdrop. In the next instant, he materialized at the edge of the Source Flow core's "sky"—a dome sheathed in pale light-membrane. Below lay the utterly still Permafrost Wastes, blanketed in pale frost-scars, a colossal frozen necropolis.

Chenxiao's gaze pierced the pale membrane, pierced the polluted clouds, locking unerringly on the Light Domain. Though the vast ancient wills had withdrawn, the echo of the "Primordial Radiance" burned like a curse upon the fabric of law, searing his core of being. It was the terminus, yet also the beginning.

His arm, scarred with virtual embers, slowly rose. His palm faced the Light Domain, fingers splayed.

This time, what ignited in his palm wasn't the "Permafrost Aurora," but a leaping mass of cold cinders! At its core, a strand of tamed Void-attribute writhed like a living thing.

"Virtual Ember... Touch..."

Driven by icy will, the mass of cinders silently expanded, like spilled frigid ink, instantly *shrouding* the pale light-membrane before him! The shrouded section of membrane dimmed instantly; its flowing veins of order stalled, its structure forcibly parsed, *covered*, assimilated by the Virtual Ember power!

*Hsss——!*

Space within the ash-shrouded area cracked like fragile glass under Chenxiao's ember-clad hand! A rift tore open, its edges burning with cinder-light! Beyond the rift lay not the Wastes' polluted sky, but churning, suffocating clouds of pure gold light! Sacred aura of ultimate purity mixed with terrifying law-pressure surged through the tear like a tidal wave!

The Light Domain Barrier! He had directly torn the Domain's outer law-shield!

Almost simultaneous with the rift's appearance—

"Profane Construct! HALT!"

"PURGE!"

Several majestic, thunderous roars filled with sacred wrath exploded from the depths of the golden light-clouds! The soundwaves solidified into colossal golden hammers, crashing towards the rift!

Light blazed at the rift's edge! Twelve figures materialized instantly—projections of the Light Domain's law, clad in radiant platinum-white holy armor, wielding greatswords ablaze with sacred flame! Forming a semicircle, they sealed the cinder-burning rift entrance! The lead Paladin raised his massive sword, its tip a point of ultra-condensed golden radiance locked onto Chenxiao! A purifying will, like billions of red-hot needles, stabbed into his consciousness!

No probing! No declaration! The Domain's defenses, sensing the "Virtual Ember Touch" tearing the barrier, unleashed the highest level of purging strike! The power of these twelve Paladin projections dwarfed Antoine's physical squad, bearing the pure law-intent of erasure!

Chenxiao's cinder-flame eyes flickered once with icy calm. Facing the world-obliterating purging radiance, he didn't evade or block. He simply pushed forward the hand that had torn the barrier, the one sheathed in Virtual Ember power, towards the charging golden projections.

The cold cinder-mass in his palm suddenly spun, expanded!

Not defense. Erosion!

*Hmmmm——!*

The ash-vortex slammed silently into the purging golden radiance at the tip of the lead Paladin's sword!

The expected annihilation didn't occur. The golden purging light, potent enough to vaporize mountains, upon touching the ash-vortex edge, saw its pure sacred particle structure forcibly covered, assimilated by the vortex core's Void-attribute strand!

*Sssss! Crrrk!*

The gold-white Holy Light shed its sacred radiance like gold plunged into acid, stained deathly ash-gray! The law-force composing the projection was forcibly parsed, eroded, covered by the Virtual Ember power! The lead Paladin projection's majestic face registered data-stream disruption-like shock! His sacred flame greatsword, starting from the tip, rapidly lost its luster, overlaid with frigid cinders like charred wood!

"This... is not... foe of... Light... it's... Law... Erosion!" The lead projection shrieked with fragmented, static-laced horror!

Chenxiao's will was cold as the abyss: "Light... also... Virtual Ember... fuel..."

His outstretched hand snapped into a fist!

*KRAKOOM!*

The ash-shrouded Paladin projection, along with his cinderizing sword, exploded like terracotta crushed by an invisible fist! No energy blast—only countless law-fragments burning with cinder-light, scattering like frigid sparks, voraciously devoured by the ash-vortex in Chenxiao's palm!

"Array! Holy Bastion! Isolate the Corruption!" The remaining eleven projections reacted instantly, abandoning attack. Swords crossed, sigils flared! A colossal bastion of pure Holy Light law crystallized before the rift—a flowing, liquid-gold sigil-etched shield of crystal, radiating the supreme will to isolate all profane arts and purge all evil! Its emergence even pushed back the golden light-clouds surging through the rift!

Chenxiao's cinder-cracked visage, behind the ice mask, remained impassive. His outstretched hand didn't withdraw. Instead, the fingertips of his splayed hand erupted with five hyper-condensed beams of cinder-light!

Fine as spider silk, their tips shimmered with the Void-attribute's dark gleam. They ignored the crystal bastion's physical and energy barriers like living vipers, instantly piercing the seemingly impregnable law-shield!

*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!*

Five faint impacts! Five minuscule points of cinder-light ignited on the crystal bastion!

"IMPOSSIBLE!" The Paladin projections roared in disbelief! They felt the law-structure composing the Holy Bastion being frantically eroded, *covered*, transmuted around those five cinder points! The bastion's radiance dimmed rapidly, turning ashen around them! Its solid surface softened and sagged like acid-corroded metal!

"Shroud!" Chenxiao's icy will was a final decree.

His outstretched hand snapped open, fingers tearing viciously!

*CRASH——!!!*

The Holy Light Crystal Bastion, sustained by eleven Paladin projections, webbed with cinder-fissures, shattered like glass! Exploding into a sky full of law-shards burning with cinder-light!

*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!*

The eleven projections convulsed as if thunderstruck, their forms instantly dimming, dispersing. Before vanishing completely, their gazes locked on Chenxiao, filled with incomprehensible shock and a sliver of... fear before an unknown erosion.

The rift's blockage was annihilated. Churning golden light-clouds surged unimpeded, their terrifying law-pressure swallowing Chenxiao like solid seawater!

Chenxiao's form swayed under the golden deluge. The pale Terminus Flame and cinder-cracks sheathing him sizzled under the pure Holy Light's scorch, emitting thin wisps of pale vapor. Yet the cinder-flames in his eyes burned colder, steadier.

He took a step forward, passing through the rift burning with cinder-light, truly setting foot within the Light Domain's outer barrier—the Sea of Radiance!

Before him stretched an endless, churning, boiling expanse of golden light-clouds! Within them flowed rivers of liquid-gold law, coalescing into mountains of light, torrents of radiance, even glimpses of majestic cities woven from pure Holy Light! Omnipresent sacred hymns resonated at the level of law, bearing the overwhelming might to cleanse souls and purify all creation. Every mote of light-dust here contained purifying energy potent enough to incinerate an ice mountain of the Permafrost Wastes!

"Foul... Construct... Treads... Sacred... Ground... DIE!"

A will vaster than all previous Paladin projections combined, closer to the Source, boomed like the bell of creation from the light-clouds' depths! With the will, the churning clouds ahead violently parted!

A colossal starburst gate, forged entirely of hyper-condensed Holy Light, rose amidst the radiance! At its center lay not emptiness, but a slowly rotating, massive eye whose core burned with an eternal golden flame—the **[Eye of Judgment]**! The ultimate defensive node of the Light Domain's outer barrier!

The great eye opened! A beam of light impossible to describe by color—seeming to contain the condensed purging will of the Light Domain over eons—a residue-beam of "Primordial Radiance," carrying the ultimate power to erase existence and remake law, instantly bridged the Sea of Radiance, locked onto Chenxiao, and surged forth!

Before the beam struck, Chenxiao's cinder-cracked form groaned under the strain! The ember-fissures across his armor spread wildly under the terrible light-pressure! The deep-blue crystalline core within him pulsed frantically, screaming on the verge of shattering! This was purer, closer to the source of law than the Source Flow core's "Corrosion"—a force of erasure emanating from the "Primordial Radiance's" lingering authority!

Retreat? No path back!

Chenxiao's cinder-flame eyes compressed to pinpricks! Deep within his core, the strand of Void-attribute tamed by the Virtual Ember Touch was driven to its limit under the pressure of death!

He no longer defended. No longer eroded. Instead, he crossed his Virtual Ember-cracked arms before his chest, palms inward, fingertips touching!

"Ash... to... Void..."

A cold, fragmented thought, as if from the world's end, detonated in the Sea of Radiance!

*Hmmmm——!!!*

Centered on Chenxiao, a tiny, profound, light-devouring cinder-singularity burst into being! At its core, the Void-attribute strand flared to maximum! Space around the singularity, along with the surging golden clouds, imploded inward, warping, forcibly *covered* with a burning outline of cinders!

*BOOOOOOM——!!!*

The existence-erasing "Primordial Radiance" residue-beam slammed into the cinder-singularity!

No explosion! No annihilation!

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

The beam's annihilating forefront, upon touching the cinder-singularity, had its terrifying purging will and law-structure forcibly *covered*, parsed, assimilated by the singularity's core Void-attribute! The beam's gold-white hue rapidly faded, stained deathly ash-gray! Its erasing power didn't vanish; it was forcibly twisted, transmuted by the Virtual Ember Singularity into a chaotic torrent... burning with cinders, suspended between existence and oblivion!

"Transmute... Feed..."

Chenxiao's crossed arms trembled violently, the cinder-fissures across them spreading and deepening as if about to shatter! But the pinprick cinder-flames in his eyes held with deadly stability! He wrenched his crossed arms violently apart!

"OPEN——!!!"

*KRAKOOM!!!*

The beam-torrent, forcibly covered, transmuted, and stalled by the Virtual Ember Singularity, fired like a cannon with its barrel twisted! Using Chenxiao as the pivot, it transformed into a destructive torrent—diameter shrunk, but burning with frigid cinders—and blasted towards the colossal starburst gate in the light-clouds to his side—the **[Eye of Judgment]**!

"NO——!!!" The monumental will within the **[Eye of Judgment]** unleashed an unprecedented shriek of horror and disbelief! It tried to close, to defend, but it was too late! The transmuted torrent, bearing its own erasing power and the Virtual Ember's corruption, ignored spatial distance, instantly piercing the great eye at the gate's center!

*Hssss——!!!*

Like white-hot iron thrust into snow!

The colossal starburst gate convulsed violently! The condensed Holy Light composing it dimmed and grayed as if encountering its nemesis! The central [Eye of Judgment] screeched in agony, its eternally burning golden flame instantly smothered, eroded by a layer of icy cinders! Ash-gray fissures spider-webbed across the great eye's surface!

BOOOOOOM!!!

Pushed beyond endurance, the gate exploded! Countless Holy Light shards burning with cinders showered like meteors into the golden Sea of Radiance! Before its final dissolution, the [Eye of Judgment] projected one last, venomous, fearful, and deeply bewildered thought:

"Vir...tual... Cinder... Light's... Foe..."

Energy turbulence from the shattered gate ravaged the light-clouds. Chenxiao's form was hurled backward by the backlash, his ice armor and cinder-cracks constantly annihilating and regenerating under the violent energy wash, appearing utterly broken. Yet, the cinder-flames in his eyes burned coldly in the explosion's glare, the Void-attribute gleam at their core denser than before.

He slowly stabilized, hovering within the churning golden light-clouds. Ahead, the gate's wreckage was slowly being "purged" and absorbed by the light-clouds. Further away, deep within the radiance, the outlines of majestic cities woven from pure Holy Light seemed to sharpen.

He had torn a cinder-burning wound in the Light Domain's barrier.

The path of Shroud had entered the Sea of Radiance. Ahead lay the Domain's heart, bathed in sacred light—Xi Yao, the Radiant Citadel.

Chenxiao's cinder-cracked hand slowly wiped away a trickle of pale-flame-licked ice crystals seeping from the edge of his mask. The shards vanished swiftly in the light-clouds.

He took a step. Towards the silhouette of the Radiant Citadel.

The golden light-clouds parted beneath his tread, momentarily covered with fleeting cinder-traces—like treading a path of smoldering ruin... through a sacred sea.