Polar Day And Polar Night

The tremors in the Sea of Radiance had yet to subside. Fragments of the star-gate, still smoldering with cinders, sank like molten gold within the churning, golden light-clouds, slowly being "purified." Chenxiao hovered in the aftermath of the sacred storm, his shattered cryosteel armor a latticework of cinder-seams. Each "breath" – if the ebb and flow of the energy tide could be called such – pulled at wounds in the fabric of his being, a torment of law and profound depletion. Deep within his eye sockets, the pale flame surrounding his cinder-core burned steadily. The wisp of void-attribute tamed by the Embergrave Touch seemed denser, deeper, after tearing apart the [Arbiter's Gaze].

His fractured gaze pierced the surging light-clouds, locking onto the distant horizon – that colossal silhouette sculpted from pure Holy Light, shimmering within the luminous sea. Xi Yao Sanctum. The heart of the Light Domain. The origin of Lu Chen's former glory and ultimate disgrace. The place where the echo of the "Primordial Radiance" rang clearest.

"Light Domain... core... Xi Yao..."

Icy shards of thought tumbled within the cinder-core. No trace of Lu Chen's fury remained, nor Tang Xiao's obsession. Only an absolute coldness pointing toward the terminus. Shroud. Remake. The only path.

*Hmmmm——!*

His form, etched with cinder-seams, blurred once more, seeming to merge with the light-clouds themselves. He surged forward at trans-perceptual speed toward the Sanctum's silhouette. In his wake, the boiling golden clouds were forcibly parted, overlaid with fleeting trails of cold, ashen residue – like a wake of smoldering destruction drawn through a sacred ocean.

Yet, this Sea of Radiance was no thoroughfare.

"Halt him!"

"Sacred Edict: Chains of Light!"

"Purge Torrents!"

Thundering commands and holy chants erupted throughout the light-clouds! Chenxiao's violation of the [Arbiter's Gaze] was like cold water cast into boiling oil, detonating the Light Domain's outer barrier defenses at full force. No longer scattered paladin projections, but entire legions materialized from pure Holy Light law!

The golden clouds solidified, sculpting themselves! Countless warriors clad in flowing light-armor, wielding lances or greatswords, coalesced into existence, forming disciplined ranks like mobile levees of light! Massive chains woven from liquid holy sigils, ignoring spatial constraints, instantly lashed towards Chenxiao's streaking form! Further out, rivers of light – as resplendent as captured galaxies, composed of billions of pious beliefs and purifying wills – tore through the clouds, bearing the absolute intent to scour away defilement, roaring towards him!

A cage of law! Torrents of faith!

The cinder-flame in Chenxiao's eye sockets compressed to pinpoints! Facing this saturation bombardment of purifying force, evasion was impossible! His arms, crisscrossed with seams, snapped together before his chest, fingertips blazing with cinder-light!

"Embergrave Bastion!"

*Hmmmm——!*

A minute yet profound cinder-singularity bloomed before him! It spun, expanded violently, instantly morphing into a translucent, curved barrier wreathed in cold, smoldering ash! Across its surface, intricate cinder-sigils flowed. Deep within its core, the wisp of void-attribute pulsed like a living thing!

*WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!*

The Chains of Light slammed onto the *Embergrave Bastion*! Sacred links potent enough to bind stars, upon contact, found their luminous law-structure forcibly *shrouded*, eroded! Golden chains plunged into metaphysical acid, rapidly dimming, softening, disintegrating! The constricting bonds shattered link by link, scattering as burning cinder-fragments!

Next, the Purge Torrents, like roaring golden dragons, crashed upon the bastion!

*SHRIEEEEK——!!!*

Deafening energy-annihilation shrieked! The *Embergrave Bastion* buckled, warped violently! Its surface instantly spider-webbed with cracks! The cinder-power composing it was savagely scoured, eroded by the furious purge-tides! Chenxiao's armored form was battered backward, each step rippling the light-clouds, the cinder-seams across his body deepening and spreading wildly!

"Hold! Exhaust his foul power!" A figure composed of pure photonic energy, robed as a bishop, commanded from behind the light-legions. More lances, arrows of sacred light rained down like a tempest upon the buckling bastion!

Chenxiao's cinder-flame flickered erratically under the onslaught, yet the void-wisp at its core grew denser. His crossed arms braced against the bastion, the cinder-seams upon them bulging like engorged veins, channeling every shred of Terminus power into the barrier! Each crashing wave of purifying energy brought agony as the bastion was eroded, but also deeper analysis, deeper experience in *shrouding* the Light Domain's laws!

"Light... torrent... also... fuel..." The icy thought crystallized amidst the pummeling.

At the very precipice of the bastion's collapse—

Chenxiao unleashed a silent roar! His crossed arms thrust outward with explosive force!

"Refund!"

*KRAKOOM——!!!*

The crumbling *Embergrave Bastion* imploded! Not shattering, but undergoing a forced compression, conversion! All the purging energy it had absorbed, every impact, fused with its own residual cinder-power, condensed into an even denser cinder-singularity, its void-core blazing! Then, like a spring compressed beyond limit, it detonated outward!

A beam of destruction, burning with cold cinders, its core entwined with a strand of forcibly assimilated, twisted Holy Light residue, erupted from Chenxiao in a wide arc, blasting back towards the onrushing light-legions and Purge Torrents!

*SSSSHHHHRRRIIIIIEEEKKK——!!!*

Where the cinder-beam swept, light-lances and arrows dissolved like snow! The foremost light-warriors caught in its path saw their photonic bodies instantly gray, crumble, becoming clouds of burning, frigid sparks! Purge Torrents met the cinder-beam head-on; golden rivers of Holy Light stained like ink injected into water, vast swathes turning deathly ashen, structures collapsing, energy devoured and assimilated in reverse!

"NO—!" The photonic bishop-projection shrieked in horror, trying to marshal laws to bolster defenses, but the cinder-beam swept forth like a scythe! His form and a large swathe of the light-legion around him silently disintegrated under the cinder-shroud's erosion, becoming a vast, smoldering cavity of voided law within the light-sea!

Chenxiao's form was hurled backward by the recoil, shards of his ruined armor flying and vanishing in the light-clouds. Yet, he harnessed the momentum, his speed catapulting him forward like a cinder-meteor against the tide. He breached the light-legion's blockade, plunging headlong into a region ahead where the golden clouds abruptly thinned, becoming clear as liquid amber.

Pressure plummeted.

The vista opened.

The churning light-clouds here grew relatively placid, a sea of golden vitreous. And at the far end of this luminous expanse, a city of such grandeur and sanctity it defied description hung suspended.

Xi Yao Sanctum.

No longer a mere silhouette, but a tangible construct. Its walls weren't stone, but solidified Holy Light law, flowing with liquid-gold luminescence, etched with countless ancient sacred sigils radiating eternal, undying radiance. Mountainous spire-temples, piercing the light-clouds, were crowned with Pyre-cradles – miniature suns of unquenchable sacred flame. Countless vessels of pure light, winged emissaries, darted through the skies above the city, weaving holy trajectories. A sanctified hymn seemed to emanate from every foundational block, resonating at the level of law, forming an invisible field that scoured the soul.

Mere observation was enough to sear the soul and induce abject unworthiness in anything unpurified.

Here was the ultimate symbol of the Light Domain's order and glory. The greatest anchor of the "Primordial Radiance" in the mortal realm.

Chenxiao hovered outside the Sanctum's colossal light-walls, insignificant as dust. The remnants of his ice-armor disintegrated faster under the Sanctum's ceaseless purifying field. From the cinder-seams, droplets of pale-flame-licked ice crystals seeped like bleeding embers of a dying struggle. The cinder-flame in his eye sockets dimmed noticeably under the Sanctum's crushing sacred pressure.

Yet, he straightened his shattered frame. A hand covered in cinder-seams slowly rose, pressing against his fractured chest. At his fingertips, a point of cold cinder-light silently coalesced.

At that moment—

*HMMMMMMMMMMM——!!!*

Xi Yao Sanctum erupted with unprecedented radiance! Every Pyre-cradle flared a hundred times brighter! The liquid-gold law flowing through the walls boiled! The darting light-emissaries above froze mid-flight, pivoting as one. Innumerable gazes – cold, scrutinizing, filled with towering wrath and ultimate judgment – solidified into tangible blades, instantly converging upon the minuscule, defiled, deathly cinder-speck outside the walls.

At the pinnacle of the Sanctum's central, highest temple.

Upon a dais of flawless crystal, a figure manifested.

Clad in simple white robes, unadorned beyond austerity, his face veiled by a soft, all-encompassing Holy Light, only his eyes were visible. Twin orbs of purest gold, like concentrated light from the universe's dawn, pierced the distance, gazing down with cold, emotionless finality upon the insignificant, filthy, still form wreathed in deathly ash below.

One of the Light Domain's supreme rulers. Holder of the Final Judgment. The Grand Inquisitor, Elias.

No words. No questions.

He simply raised his right hand.

As he moved, the canopy of Pyre-cradles above Xi Yao Sanctum collapsed inward, converging! Light compressed beyond measure, forging a single, colossal eye composed of billions of solidified strands of Holy Light law!

The [Eye of Heavenly Chastisement]!

The eye opened slowly. Within its pupil lay not darkness, but terrifying vistas of realms birthing and dying, stars shattering, order remade! An indescribable pressure, transcending purification, transcending erasure, embodying the ultimate negation of law itself – the weight of the cosmos – crashed down, irrevocably locking onto Chenxiao!

Chenxiao's form, etched with cinder-seams, groaned under the judgment-lock like ice plunged into a stellar core. A scream of imminent, absolute dissolution tore from his very substance! The cinder-flame in his eyes was crushed to needle-points, flickering wildly, on the verge of snuffing out!

Grand Inquisitor Elias's face, veiled in radiance, remained impassive. Only within those pure gold pupils flickered a sliver of icy resolve.

His raised right hand pressed down, palm open, towards Chenxiao.

"Judgment... Executed..."

*BOOOOOOOOOOM——!!!*

Within the pupil of the [Eye of Heavenly Chastisement], the churning vistas of cosmic creation and destruction froze. A beam of light impossible to define by color – stripped of all attributes, embodying purest negation – carrying the absolute decree of finality, ignored space and time, and descended upon Chenxiao.

Chenxiao's consciousness was swallowed by all-consuming negation.