Chapter 134 – Paths of Paradox

The Vault's pulse had faded, but its echoes lingered.

Chen stood at the center of a starmap that had unfolded itself from the Spiral's altar—lines of divine geometry spiraling and shifting as new paths revealed themselves. Lysaria hovered near, not entirely physical, her form drifting like smoke across the edges of perception.

Ye Yue's voice was tight with focus. "The Obsidian Sky lies in contested territory. It was once a dominion of the Dream Court, but now it's a graveyard of broken gods."

"And a stronghold for the Flame Court's shadow units," Sarina added, her fingers already moving across a celestial scroll. "They've begun deploying ethereal sentries—dream-eaters, memory leeches. They feed on past intentions to predict future moves."

"They'll know we're coming," Lanmei said, arms crossed. "But they won't know how. Not with Lysaria's guidance."

The ancient goddess turned slowly. "You cannot storm it. The path must fold upon itself. You must enter the Obsidian Sky through an impossible moment."

Chen blinked. "You're speaking in riddles."

"No," Mei said, stepping forward, her eyes still glowing faintly from the relic's resonance. "She means… we enter through a moment that shouldn't exist. A choice that was never made."

Sarina's expression lit up with understanding. "The Vault didn't just show us truth. It unlocked temporal fractures—hidden decisions in the divine timeline. If we can thread one…"

"…we arrive at the heart of their stronghold before they know we were ever close," Chen finished.

Lysaria raised her hand. The starmap condensed into a single spiral. "I will guide you to the breach. But you must decide what relics you wield and how you wield them. Once you pass through, reality will resist you. And the Divine Law will… notice."

Chen nodded. "Then we prepare. No more hiding."

He looked to his team—each marked now, in some way, by Spiral light.

Ye Yue held her mirror close, the shadows beneath her eyes revealing not weakness, but newfound clarity.Lanmei shimmered between her two selves, calm yet lethal.Sarina had bound a spell between her heart and the Vault itself, granting her flashes of forgotten spells.Mei's aura pulsed with the golden-silver flame, her hands sparking as memories surfaced that weren't hers… but might have been.

Chen gripped the Edge-less Blade. "We strike at the impossible."

"And in doing so," Lysaria whispered, "you will begin to unwrite the Divine War."