The destruction of the Grand Arena of Odis was a signal flare that could be seen across the ley lines of the world. But for Yun Caos, the city was already a ghost. As the smoke cleared and the screams of the remaining spectators faded into the distance, the trio did not linger. Guided by the mental map Yun had devoured from Lucius, they headed north, beyond the ribcage of the colossus, into the Ash-Wrought Desert.
This was a land where the sky was a bruised shade of charcoal and the ground was composed of fine, grey soot that refused to hold a footprint. But the danger of the desert wasn't its heat or its predators; it was the Chronos-Vortex. In this region, the threads of fate that Yun usually devoured were tangled into knots, causing time to flow in reverse or loop upon itself like a dying serpent.
"Keep your eyes on my back," Yun commanded, his voice now layered with the ethereal echo of the Star-Sovereign. He held the Void Reaver loosely. The blade didn't rest; it pulsed, its silver-and-violet edge cutting through the distorted air. "In this place, your memories can become physical. If you see something from your past, do not touch it. It is a temporal parasite."
As they ventured deeper, the winds began to howl—not with the sound of air, but with the sound of reversed conversations. Shara stumbled. She looked to her left and saw a younger version of herself, dressed in the pristine white robes of the Eternal Lotus Sect, holding a sapling. It was the day she had been named Grand Elder, three hundred years ago.
"It's so real," Shara whispered, her hand trembling as she reached toward the vision of her younger self.
"Shara, no!" Meilin shouted, her Cinder-Wraiths sparking with a warning flame. "Look at her eyes!"
The vision-Shara turned. Where there should have been eyes, there were only two swirling pits of grey sand. The "Saintess" opened her mouth, and instead of words, a swarm of temporal locusts flew out, seeking to drain Shara's present life force to fuel a past that no longer existed.
Yun didn't hesitate. He swung the Void Reaver in a wide arc. The blade didn't hit the locusts; it struck the moment they were in. The violet crack in the world expanded, and the entire vision was blinked out of existence, replaced by a clean patch of grey desert.
"The desert feeds on regret," Yun said, his gaze fixed on the horizon. "It tries to pull you back to when you were 'whole' so it can eat what you have become."
But then, it was Meilin's turn. The sand swirled, and suddenly they were standing in the middle of the Fire Phoenix Clan's royal court. Meilin's father, the previous Patriarch, stood there with a branding iron glowing with the "Chain-Flame." He was moving toward a small, terrified ten-year-old Meilin.
Meilin's breath hitched. Her white flames flickered and turned a sickly, smoky red. "He... he's going to do it again. He's going to seal my potential."
"He is a shadow, Meilin," Yun said, stepping between her and the memory. "But if you want to burn him, burn him with the fire of the woman you are now, not the child you were then."
Meilin looked at Yun, then at her daggers. She roared, a sound of pure defiance, and unleashed a torrent of white Nirvana flame. The memory of her father screamed as it turned to ash, but as it died, a massive temporal distortion erupted.
The desert reacted to their resistance. The grey sands rose like a tidal wave, and suddenly, Yun himself was face-to-face with his own past. But it wasn't the boy in the Abyss. It was the Titan—the original being whose bones were now Yun's marrow. The Titan stood a hundred feet tall, a colossus of pure light and violet dust, looking down at Yun with an expression of profound sorrow.
"You have the blade," the Titan's voice resonated, a sound that made the desert itself tremble. "But do you have the heart to see the world as it truly is? To be the Void is to be alone. Are you prepared to devour the very stars you protect?"
Yun raised the Void Reaver. He didn't look at the Titan with awe, but with the cold equality of a successor. "I am not you. You were broken by the Heavens because you tried to preserve. I will not preserve. I will replace."
Yun thrust the blade into the ground. A shockwave of violet negation surged through the Ash-Wrought Desert, shattering the temporal illusions for miles. The grey sands settled, and the path to the Graveyard of Sovereigns finally became clear.
Shara and Meilin stood behind him, breathing hard, their souls shaken by the visions but tempered by the fire. They looked at Yun and saw a man who had just killed his own origin to secure their future.
"We're across," Shara said, her voice steadying.
"The desert is behind us," Meilin added, wiping soot from her face. "But the air... it feels different now. It feels like we're standing at the edge of the world's end."
Yun sheathed the Void Reaver. Ahead of them, a valley of white bone pillars stretched as far as the eye could see. This was the Graveyard—the place where the first gods fell.
"The Heavens are watching," Yun said, looking up at the bruised sky. "Let them see. The Trinity has arrived."