High Inquisitor Valerius remained motionless, his blue eyes flickering like a dying star as he weighed the sheer impossibility of the boy standing before him. The silence in the Grand Hall was not merely an absence of sound; it was a physical weight, compressed by the clash of Arthur's terrifying Void presence and the Inquisitor's Rank 7 spiritual pressure.
"Sovereign Immunity," Valerius repeated the words slowly, as if tasting poison. "To grant a Rank 4 student the legal status of a planetary protector is a mockery of our laws. However, the Helios Clan's 'malfunction' has created a political vacuum, and the GDF does not like to leave vacuums unfilled."
Valerius stood up, the gravity glass of his throne shattering under the sudden shift in his intent. "You speak of the Pacific Trench, Arthur Pendragon. Our deep-sea probes have gone silent. The containment field we placed over the 'Abyssal Rift' is decaying. Something is eating the energy from the other side, and we do not have a cultivator capable of surviving the pressure and the corruption of the Sixth Plane."
He leaned forward, his Rank 7 aura manifesting as spectral wings of blue flame behind him. "If you are the 'weapon' you claim to be, then prove it. We will grant you temporary immunity. In exchange, you will deploy to the Pacific Trench immediately. Your mission is not to investigate; it is to Seal the Leak. If you succeed, you become a Sovereign. If you fail, the ocean will be your tomb, and the GDF will erase your name from history."
Arthur didn't blink. He felt the cold thrill of the Void Symbiote inside him reacting to the mention of the Rift. "A tomb in the ocean sounds much more peaceful than a desk in this academy," Arthur replied, his voice echoing with a metallic edge.
Behind him, Seraphina's eyes turned a blinding silver. "The path is set," she whispered. "The Abyss is calling its own."
Valerius signaled to one of his Paladins. A metallic cylinder, etched with glowing Rank 10 sealing runes, was brought forward. "This is a Spatial Anchor. You must detonate it at the heart of the rift. Be warned, Pendragon—the monsters down there are not like the beasts of the Wild Zones. They are 'Un-beings.' They do not kill; they unmake."
Arthur reached out and took the cylinder. As his fingers touched the runes, they flickered from blue to a haunting, jagged grey. "Then they and I have much in common," Arthur said, turning his back on the High Inquisitor. "Seraphina, prepare the sub-space shuttle. We're going to see what the bottom of the world looks like."