In the Cloud-Gap Corridor of Thunder God Island, Bai Cheng, Zi Yuan, and Garel stood before three Thunder God Imperial Guards, the air thick with the faint crackling of electric arcs.
The guard leader, Baros, knelt on one knee, his voice from beneath the obsidian visor suppressing emotions from a thousand years of waiting:
"Before Lord Rego fell, he left a prophecy: When the bloodline descendant ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) returns to the Thunder Pool bearing the Seal of Judgnt, the oath of the golden bell shall ring across the heavens once more. Young Master, you have finally arrived."
Thunder flashed in Garel's single eye: "Grandfather... no, did Lord Rego leave any other ssage?"
Baros rose and pointed his warhamr toward the depths of the corridor.
There, at the end of a blue electric arc passage, a floating Thunderlight Platform erged, upon which stood an ancient stone tablet condensed from lightning.
"Lord Rego's last words are carved upon the Thunder God Inscription."
Another guard, Swift Thunder Sylvie, who held dual blades, spoke with a voice as swift as lightning:
"He said the shattering of the golden bell was no accident, but the final insurance set by the Sky Federation to combat the Calamity of the Observers."
Bai Cheng stepped forward, her silver eyes gazing at the Thunder God Inscription.
The characters on the inscription were not physical but constantly flowing lightning runes, each one carrying the heavy weight of history.
She reached out, the light of the insignia of judgnt touching the inscription.
Boom—
Thunder light exploded, and a torrent of mories flooded into her consciousness.
She saw the Sky Federation's assembly hall from a thousand years ago:
At that ti, Rego was not a fading Thunder God but a high-spirited Federation Marshal.
He was in a heated argunt with the High Priest of Shandora and Mirror Pupil, the Chief of the Observer Council.
Mirror Pupil was a floating silver mirror surface, reflecting countless future branches:
"Data projections show that in 78.3% of future tilines, the sky island civilization will perish within three hundred years due to internal division.
The optimal solution: Establish a unified belief system to guide civilizational evolution with absolute rationality."
Rego smashed the council table with a fist: "Bullshit! The essence of the sky island civilization lies in diversity and freedom! Faith should co from the heart, not be engineered!"
The High Priest of Shandora—also Aurora's ancestor—proposed a compromise:
"Perhaps... we can create a Wish Resonator to collect the true prayers of all sky island beings, allowing the civilization to choose its own future."
Thus, the golden bell was born.
But Mirror Pupil secretly embedded Observation Nodes within the bell's body, attempting to use the golden bell to reverse-control the collective consciousness of the sky island civilization.
After Rego discovered the truth, he dropped all pretenses during the final Federation eting.
The mory imagery shifted to the battle that decided the fate of the Sky Island:
Rego led his army to attack the Nest of a Thousand Mirrors, only to be trapped by Mirror Pupil's logic traps before the mirror maze.
The High Priest of Shandora activated the golden bell's purification resonance, attempting to erase the Observation Nodes within, but this caused the bell's body to overload and shatter.
At the critical mont, Rego made the choice to sacrifice himself.
He infused his authority over thunder into the three largest fragnts and set a restriction:
Only one with pure conviction could reunite the fragnts and awaken the true spirit of the golden bell.
As for himself, he led the people of Jaya to retreat to Thunder God Island, using his body as a shield to guard the border of the Sky Island until a bloodline descendant returned with the Seal of Judgnt.
The torrent of mories receded.
Bai Cheng opened her eyes and found that Zi Yuan and Garel had also just awakened from the resonance.
Brief lightning marks appeared on all three of their foreheads.
"So that's how it is..." Garel touched the mark on his forehead, a flash of realization in his single eye.
"Lord Rego didn't want us to inherit his power; he wanted us to prove ourselves.
To prove that the sky island civilization still deserves the right to choose its own future."
Baros's obsidian visor turned toward Bai Cheng: "Adjudicators, Lord Rego left one final sentence on the inscription: '
If the successors understand the truth, the Thunder Pool Abyss shall open of its own accord.
But within the abyss, what awaits you is not a gift, but a trial—a Sky Island Trial to test if you are worthy of reforging the golden bell.'"
He struck the ground with his warhamr, thunder spreading from the tip, and the entire Cloud-Gap Corridor began to vibrate.
The Thunderlight Platform ahead rose slowly, and a chasm split open in its center. Liquid lightning surged at the bottom; that was the Thunder Pool.
"What is the content of the trial?" Zi Yuan gripped her long blade.
"Defeat 'Rego's Regret'." Baros's voice grew distant.
"That is the incarnation of an inner demon left by Lord Rego in the Thunder Pool, his eternal self-reproach for failing to prevent the shattering of the golden bell and failing to save the Sky Federation.
Only by frontally crushing this regret and proving you have the resolve to transcend the past can you obtain the oath core."
Nebulae swirled within Bai Cheng's silver eyes.
She looked at Zi Yuan, then at Garel, and finally toward the boiling Thunder Pool.
"Let's go."
The three leapt into the Thunder Pool.
Liquid lightning instantly swallowed their vision.
Nest of a Thousand Mirrors, Seventh Level mirror corridor.
The battle between Zi Yuan and her Mirror Duplicate had reached a fever pitch.
Two identical long blades collided in the air, each clash erupting in blinding purple blade light, reflected in countless mirrors to form ten thousand overlapping afterimages.
"Too slow." The mirror Zi Yuan's voice remained chanical.
"Shut up!" Zi Yuan roared, her Tide-Breaking Blade Intent erupting fully as the blade light turned into a purple tide sweeping through the corridor!
But the mirror Zi Yuan also slashed out an identical tide of blades.
The two forces collided in mid-air, canceling each other out, and the corridor shook violently.
Blue Bird clenched her fists anxiously in the observation area, thunder crackling on her gauntlets.
Data streams in Leng Ningxue's icy eyes calculated frantically, trying to find a flaw in the Mirror Duplicate.
"Found it." She suddenly spoke, "The mirror body is not a perfect copy; it cannot mimic the instantaneous overclocking brought by emotional outbursts. Zi Yuan, use that move!"
Resolve flashed in Zi Yuan's eyes.
She rembered that mont on the Sky Island when she forced herself past her limits to protect her companions.
She rembered the fearlessness that surged in her heart when facing the Sinful Colossus on the Lei Hai Floating Island.
She rembered the burning rage when she saw the star track collapse at the Erald Sea.
These emotions, the mirror body would not have.
Because it was a creation of logic, and emotions... never follow logic.
Tide Breaker: Final Form—
Zi Yuan closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, pure purple flas burned within.
—Heart Blade: No Regrets!
The long blade slashed out.
This strike had no flashy blade light, no violent energy—only a straight, pure purple line that condensed all her emotions and convictions.
The mirror Zi Yuan tried to mimic it, but the blade light it slashed out lagged for a fraction of a second.
Because its logic core could not understand why soone would gamble everything on epheral emotions.
The thin line passed through the mirror body's chest.
The mirror Zi Yuan looked down at the crack in its chest, a look akin to confusion appearing in its silver eyes for the first ti.
"Cannot... understand..."
Its body began to shatter, turning into countless mirror shards, then reassembled in the air into a palm-sized Mirror Prism with lightning runes flowing inside.
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