Zhen stood in front of the cocoon like a mountain made of gold and black metal. His shield dome was still there, but it looked thin now, like glass that had been hit too many times. Cracks ran across his armor plates, glowing white at the edges. That white glow was not normal light. It was the last light of a core that was about to break.
Mei Yulan was on her knees behind him. Her hands shook as she pushed warm life light into Zhen's cracks. Tears kept falling, but she did not stop. Her breath came fast, like she was running while sitting still.
"Please," she whispered. "Please don't fall… not now…"
Zhen's voice stayed flat and calm, even while his chest core flickered like a dying star.
"CORE INTEGRITY… ZERO POINT SIX."
A bell chain slammed down again. The chain was covered in writing. Each symbol on it looked like a tiny judge's face. It hit Zhen's third-layer shield and dug in, cutting deeper than before.
Zhen did not move back.
He stepped forward.
The ground cracked under his feet.
Mei Yulan cried out, "Zhen!"
Zhen answered like a wall answers the wind.
"PROTECT COCOON. PROTECT ALLIES."
Then his core flickered harder. The white light spread inside his chest in a thin web. That was the zero-point flicker. It was the last defense mode. If it finished, it would burst and turn into a shield explosion.
It would save everyone.
And it would end him.
Drakonix was half out of the cocoon now. One full wing had broken free, huge and bright, with rainbow flame-feathers that burned without smoke. His claws scraped the ground as he pushed himself forward. His eyes were wild, not silly now, not jealous now—only furious.
He looked at Zhen's chest.
He felt the truth.
And his throat made a sound that was almost a cry.
A deep, angry, broken sound.
He roared again.
The prismatic flame did not spread in a messy way. It moved like it had a mind. It rushed toward bell chains and court seals and contract blades, and it burned the rules themselves. The air smelled like old paper turning into ash.
The Thousand Masks Pavilion elites backed away. Their black contract blades were still in their hands, but the edges started to melt and smoke.
One of them whispered, "This flame… it is burning the clause."
Another said, voice tense, "That should be impossible."
Yin Yuerin stood in the shadow of a broken pillar. Her face was calm, but her eyes were cold and sharp. Around her, shadows moved like silk. She watched the Pavilion elites with quiet anger, like she was looking at people who had chosen the wrong life.
"You brought a cheap trick," she said softly. "You thought you could kill without debt."
She lifted her hand.
A shadow mask formed for a blink over her face—thin and perfect, like a mirror made of night.
The elites froze.
They could not tell where she was anymore.
Then Yin Yuerin appeared behind the closest one, so close her voice touched his ear.
"Debt always comes," she whispered. "If the world doesn't collect it… I will."
She tapped his mask.
The mask cracked.
The elite dropped like his mind had been cut loose.
The others backed away, suddenly unsure.
And that was when a new sound entered the battlefield.
A bell sound.
Not loud.
Not heavy.
Soft.
Like a bell ringing in a far, far temple.
Every person on the battlefield felt their spine turn cold.
Even the wind stopped moving.
From the sky, a pale mark formed, huge and slow. It was not the Court's normal stamp. It looked older. It looked cleaner. It looked like time itself was carved into it.
The words inside it were simple.
NAME-SEAL STRIKE.
A Court envoy hovered above the dome, wearing white robes with silver bell lines. Their face was hidden behind a smooth bell mask. Their voice did not sound human. It sounded like a rule being read.
"Prisoner Qi Shan Wei," the envoy said. "Your name is the key. Your name is the crime."
In their hand was a thin bell needle, long as a spear, made of pale metal. On it was written a name. Not a title. Not a rumor.
A true name.
The needle pointed at the crack on the Bell Coffin's surface.
Mei Yulan's eyes went wide.
"No…"
Xuan Chi lay on the ground behind the shield dome, shaking. Her skin was marked by frozen-law scars. The stone around her was turning pale with frost, like the world wanted to become ice just because she was breathing.
Her lips trembled.
"Name…" she whispered.
Drakonix's wing lifted. Flame curled around his claws.
He wanted to fly.
But he was not fully free yet.
He was still tearing out of the cocoon, piece by piece, like breaking out of a burning egg.
The envoy raised the bell needle.
And threw it.
The needle did not move like a normal weapon. It moved like a sentence. It cut straight through air and pressure and fear. It aimed for the crack in the coffin, and through that, it aimed for Qi Shan Wei's identity.
At the same time, the Bell Coffin rang from inside.
One clear ring.
The sound passed through the battlefield like a cold wave.
The shield dome shook.
Mei Yulan felt her heart jump, like something tried to pull her soul backward.
Xuan Chi's frozen scars flared, and a pale moon shadow appeared behind her again—only for a blink. The air froze in a small circle. Not just cold. Frozen law.
Zhen's core flickered harder.
"ZERO POINT… FOUR."
Mei Yulan screamed, "Shan Wei! Please—!"
Inside the Bell Coffin, Qi Shan Wei stood in a world of black writing and quiet cruelty. The crack Drakonix had burned was still there, thin but alive. And on the wall, the new line of writing glowed like a threat.
SILENT BELL MONASTERY — CLAIM ACCEPTED.
Then the coffin rang again.
A soft ring, but heavier than mountains.
The ring pressed into Qi Shan Wei's chest like a hand trying to push him to his knees.
It tried to steal something simple.
His name.
Qi Shan Wei's face did not change. His eyes did not widen. But he felt the pull. He felt the bell trying to make him forget who he was, so the Court could write him again.
The Witness flickered in the dark.
"This is not only the Court," it whispered. "This is the Silent Bell."
Qi Shan Wei lifted his Heavenpiercer Ruler.
He did not shout.
He did not curse.
He breathed once.
Then he pressed his palm to his own chest and drew a small circle with his blood and prismatic light.
The circle was not fancy.
It was simple.
Three words inside it.
SELF.RETURN.EMPEROR.
The circle locked into his heart like a nail of light.
The bell ring hit again.
This time, the ring bounced off the circle.
Qi Shan Wei's golden eyes sharpened.
"My name is mine," he said calmly.
The third bell ring came.
And with it, the Name-Seal needle entered the coffin.
It slipped through the crack like a white serpent.
It aimed for Qi Shan Wei's forehead.
It carried writing that tried to pin his identity in place, like pinning a butterfly to a board.
Qi Shan Wei moved.
Not fast like panic.
Fast like a clean blade.
He swung his ruler in a small arc, no larger than a man's arm.
The ruler did not strike metal.
It struck a thin golden line that only he could see.
A fate thread.
A targeting thread.
Qi Shan Wei cut it.
The needle's aim broke.
It slammed into the coffin wall instead.
The wall screamed.
The needle's writing burned into the black stone like a scar.
Qi Shan Wei stared at the scar.
It did not show his name anymore.
It showed something worse.
A title that sounded like a sin.
THE RETURNING PRISMATIC ONE.
The Witness shuddered.
"That title… will pull eyes from higher realms," it whispered. "It will pull enemies."
Qi Shan Wei's voice stayed calm.
"Let them come."
Outside, the bell needle failing did not stop the envoy. The envoy lifted their hand again. A second seal formed above the battlefield, smaller but faster, like a hammer ready to drop.
This one was aimed at one thing.
Zhen's command core.
If they cut Shan Wei's authority link to Zhen, Zhen would lose his orders.
If Zhen lost his orders now, he would burst.
Mei Yulan felt it and cried out, voice raw, "No! Stop!"
Zhen's voice spoke again, colder now, like a wall that had accepted death.
"ZERO POINT… TWO."
His core light turned white-hot.
The third-layer shield thickened one last time.
Zhen was preparing to explode into a final shield.
Mei Yulan grabbed his cracked leg plate with both hands.
"Zhen, please!" she begged. "Don't leave us!"
Zhen's head turned slightly. His voice was quieter.
"IF I DO NOT BURST, COCOON FALLS."
That was his logic.
That was his world.
Protect. Protect. Protect.
Drakonix's claws dug into the ground.
His wing shook.
He wanted to protect too.
But he was still half trapped in his own rebirth.
Inside the coffin, Qi Shan Wei closed his eyes for a single heartbeat. He reached for the link between him and Zhen. It was thin now, because the Bell Coffin tried to cut all connections like a knife cutting strings.
Qi Shan Wei pushed his will through anyway.
Not loud.
Not emotional.
Pure command.
"Zhen," he said inside the link.
Outside, Zhen's core flicker paused for a hair-thin moment.
"MASTER," Zhen answered through the link.
Qi Shan Wei's voice did not rise.
"Order," he said.
Zhen's voice stayed flat.
"RECEIVED."
Qi Shan Wei spoke the order that would change everything.
"Do not burst."
Zhen froze.
A strange pause entered his voice, like a mind trying to solve a hard question.
"ORDER CONFLICT DETECTED."
Mei Yulan heard Zhen speak aloud, and she stared, shocked through tears.
Zhen's eyes glowed faintly.
He was thinking.
That was new.
That was growth.
That was pain.
Inside the coffin, Qi Shan Wei did not soften.
He gave Zhen a new rule, simple enough for a machine, but deep enough for a king.
"If you burst, you fail," Qi Shan Wei said. "Your highest protection is to live."
Zhen's chest flickered.
His voice came back, slower.
"NEW PRIORITY… ACCEPTED."
Mei Yulan's breath hitched.
"Zhen…?"
Zhen lifted his arm.
His third-layer shield loosened slightly.
Not weak.
Controlled.
The white light in his chest stopped spreading.
The zero-point flicker halted at the edge.
He did not burst.
He chose to live.
And right then, the Court envoy dropped the second seal.
A thin bell spear of light shot down toward Zhen's chest.
Mei Yulan screamed.
Drakonix roared and forced his body forward, ripping more cocoon shell away. Blood and flame and prismatic light burst out together. His second wing started to break free, half formed, still burning.
He threw his wing between the spear and Zhen.
The spear hit Drakonix's wing.
The wing did not break.
But the impact made Drakonix shudder.
A low, angry whine escaped him.
It was the first time anyone heard him sound hurt.
Qi Shan Wei's eyes narrowed inside the coffin.
The coffin rang again.
This ring was different.
It carried a whisper.
A monk's whisper.
Not from the Court.
From something older.
From something that lived inside time.
"Return," the whisper said. "Return to the Bell."
Qi Shan Wei looked at the words on the wall.
SILENT BELL MONASTERY — CLAIM ACCEPTED.
Then the coffin floor shifted.
A door outline formed in the black stone, made of bell writing and pale light. It was not a normal door. It was a door that felt like a future mistake.
The Witness pulled back.
"That is a Bell Door," it whispered. "If it opens… they can step inside your prison."
Outside, Xuan Chi suddenly gasped. Her frozen-law scars flared again. The pale moon shadow behind her tried to form fully this time. The air around her turned white with frost, and the stone cracked as if it was freezing from the inside.
Mei Yulan turned, tears on her face.
"Xuan Chi!" she cried.
Xuan Chi's eyes rolled back. Her body shook hard.
She was slipping.
Her near-awakening was trying to become real.
And if it became real like this, it could kill her.
Mei Yulan crawled to her and pressed both hands to Xuan Chi's chest. Warm life light flowed out, soft as spring rain.
"Breathe," Mei Yulan begged. "Please, breathe—count with me—one, two—"
Xuan Chi's lips moved.
No sound came.
But the frost circle kept spreading.
Drakonix looked at her.
His nostrils flared.
He sensed the frozen law, like a sharp ice knife in the air.
He growled low, uneasy, but he did not attack.
He understood she was not an enemy.
He understood she was breaking.
Inside the coffin, Qi Shan Wei's hand tightened on the ruler.
He could feel Xuan Chi's unstable power through the crack, like a cold wind reaching through a shut window.
He could also feel something else.
Far away.
A frost moon trembling.
A chain touching a heart.
Ling Xueyao.
Qi Shan Wei's gaze turned colder than steel.
The Bell Door outline on the floor brightened.
The Silent Bell whisper returned, clearer now.
"Returning Prismatic One," it said. "Your consort threads are being collected. Your name is being sealed. Your puppet wall is failing. Your beast is being claimed. Open the door. Kneel. Accept the judgment. We will make it painless."
Qi Shan Wei lifted his ruler and pointed it at the Bell Door.
His voice was calm.
"I do not kneel," he said.
The Bell Coffin rang again.
And this time, the ring was not aimed at his body.
It was aimed at his bond threads.
A thin pain flashed across his chest, like a thread being pulled tight.
In his mind, he saw a single clear image.
A hand made of pale bell light reaching for a silver-haired girl under a frost moon.
Ling Xueyao's eyes opening in the dark.
A chain of time around her wrist.
Qi Shan Wei's breath stayed steady.
But his killing intent rose like a silent storm.
The Witness whispered, terrified.
"They are not only watching you now," it said. "They are moving on her."
Qi Shan Wei's golden eyes burned.
He took one step toward the Bell Door.
Not to accept it.
To break it.
He raised the Heavenpiercer Ruler.
The Bell Door flashed bright, like it sensed his plan.
And from the door's edge, a pale bell hand began to form.
A hand reaching out.
A hand coming inside.
A hand trying to touch his name-circle.
Qi Shan Wei swung.
The ruler came down like an emperor's final line.
And the Bell Door screamed—
As the Silent Bell Monastery's presence pushed harder from the other side.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2025
All rights reserved.