MTLNOVEL Chapter 4: *Chapter 4: The Price of Divinity**
**—A Throne Drenched in Blood—**
The ambush began not with a roar, but a whisper.
As the Ritual of Convergence reached its zenith, the Eternal Sovereign's divine energy intertwined with the Nine Heavens, binding celestial law to his will. But within that luminous tapestry, Lady Li Ming's Abyssal shard pulsed like a poisoned heart. The first strike came from General Xuan Long—his warhammer, forged in the fires of the Seventh Heaven's armory, slammed into the Sovereign's unprotected flank.
Bones cracked. Not the Sovereign's, but the very air around him, as reality itself recoiled from the betrayal.
"You dare?" the Sovereign thundered, whirling to face Xuan Long. The general's armor, once gleaming with celestial sigils, now oozed Abyssal ichor, its jagged edges bristling with malice.
"You had millennia to prove your worth," Xuan Long spat, his voice distorted by the void-infused helm. "Now *we* write history."
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**—The Dance of Treason—**
The throne hall became a storm of blades and lies. Lord Feng Jun circled above, his void-cloak peeling back layers of reality to hurl shards of corrupted starlight. Each projectile burrowed into the Sovereign's divine aura, dissolving threads of his power into smoke.
Lady Li Ming hung back, her jade staff weaving intricate seals that thickened the Abyssal corruption in the ritual's veins. "You should have listened," she called, her tone almost mournful. "Mortals are anchors, not wings."
The Sovereign lunged at her, but Xuan Long intercepted, their clash scattering bolts of energy that incinerated columns of jade and gold. For every blow the Sovereign landed, the Abyssal shard in Li Ming's grip pulsed, leaching his strength into the conspirators.
"You think this power is *yours*?" The Sovereign seized Xuan Long's hammer mid-swing, his hands burning as Abyssal runes seared his skin. "It is borrowed. Stolen. And it *will* consume you."
With a roar, he tore the weapon from the general's grasp and shattered it, the explosion hurling Xuan Long into the fractured remains of the Celestial Mirror.
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**—The Sword's Last Song—**
Desperate, the Sovereign reached for the Heavenly Sword—only to find its hilt crumbling in his grip. The blade, corrupted by Li Ming's machinations, wept black tears.
"A fitting end," Feng Jun sneered, descending with a dagger of void-stone aimed at the Sovereign's throat. "The weapon that built the heavens… will destroy their king."
The Sovereign parried, but the dagger's edge grazed his shoulder, and agony bloomed—a mortal pain he hadn't felt in eons. *Wu Kai's face flashed before him, bloodied but smiling. "Change the rules, Lin Jie."*
Channeling the last of his uncorrupted energy, the Sovereign spun, cleaving Feng Jun's dagger arm at the elbow. The steward screamed, retreating into his cloak as Abyssal mites devoured the severed limb.
"You cannot win," Li Ming hissed, her staff now a conduit for the swelling darkness. "The Abyss has already claimed you."
She was right. The ritual's circle, once gold, now throbbed black, its tendrils coiling around the Sovereign's legs. He felt the Nine Heavens slipping from his grasp, their energy siphoned into the conspirators' hungry souls.
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**—The Fall—**
In the end, it was not the Abyss that felled him, but memory.
As Li Ming's final seal snapped into place, the Sovereign glimpsed a vision in the fractured mirror: a mortal child in a burning village, reaching for a half-buried sword. *Himself. Always himself.*
The hesitation lasted a heartbeat.
Xuan Long struck, driving a shard of his shattered hammer into the Sovereign's chest. Feng Jun's laughter echoed as void-energy ravaged divine flesh. Li Ming watched, silent, as the Sovereign's blood—gold and mortal-red—pooled at her feet.
"You… forget…" the Sovereign gasped, gripping the embedded shard. "The heavens… are not *yours*."
With a surge of defiance, he channeled his dwindling power into the Heavenly Sword's core and *twisted*.
Light detonated.
The sword exploded, its shards tearing through the conspirators' stolen power. Xuan Long's armor split, revealing the festering void beneath. Feng Jun's cloak ignited, binding him in chains of his own corruption. Li Ming staggered, her staff cracking as the ritual's backlash severed her connection to the Abyss.
But the cost was absolute.
Stripped of divinity, the Sovereign fell—through the Ninth Heaven's crumbling spires, past the mortal realm's bleeding skies—into oblivion.
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**—Ashes of Victory—**
The conspirators stood amidst the ruins, their triumph bitter. Xuan Long clawed at his rotting chest, cursing. Feng Jun cradled his scorched cloak, eyes wild. Only Li Ming remained composed, though her hands trembled.
"We won," she said, as if convincing herself.
"Did we?" A rasping voice cut through the silence. Captain Lan Yi, half-crushed beneath a pillar, glared at them with his remaining eye. "You traded a king… for a cancer."
Above, the sky darkened—not with night, but with the Abyssal Realm's laughter.
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