*Chapter 49: The Throne of Ashes**
The Ebon Bastion's silhouette cut into the horizon like a blade, its obsidian walls humming with the Magic Emperor's dormant qi. Li Tian stood atop the Skybreaker Citadel's ruins, the Aeternum Core glowing faintly at his chest, its light now threaded with veins of shadow. Below, the alliance camped in uneasy silence—Verdant Lotus healers tended to burns, Iron Citadel engineers salvaged artillery, and Blood Moon survivors sharpened daggers with hollow-eyed resolve. The Frostbite elders were conspicuously absent.
*"They fear you,"* Xiaoling's voice whispered through the Core. *"And fear breeds betrayal."*
Li Tian clenched the intercepted scroll, its wax seal stamped with the Sovereign's jagged star. The message was brief: *"The Bastion's heart awaits. Deliver the Core, and your sister walks free."*
A lie. But lies had power.
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**The Council of Blades**
At dusk, Li Tian summoned the sect leaders to the citadel's fractured atrium. Lady Ruolan arrived first, her war orchid bristling. General Kael followed, his mechanized arm replaced with a crude cannon. The Frostbite elders entered last, glacial qi trailing like funeral shrouds.
"We've bled for your gambles," Elder Fen spat. "What now? Another tomb to die in?"
Li Tian unrolled the Sovereign's scroll. "One of you sent this."
The room stilled.
Kael's cannon whirred. "Name the traitor. I'll blast them to ash."
Li Tian's gaze settled on Elder Fen. "The Frostbite's glacial wards failed too conveniently during the Sun Eater ambush. Your disciples vanished before the collapse. Why?"
Fen's ice dagger materialized. "You dare accuse us? You, who let the Sovereign's puppet live in your head?"
Xiaoling's laughter echoed coldly. *"Check his sleeve, Gege."*
Li Tian moved faster than pain allowed. Spatial energy ripped Fen's robe, exposing a void-marked arm—the Sovereign's brand.
"You traded your own for power," Li Tian said. "How many Frostbite souls fed the Bastion's wards?"
Fen lunged, ice shards flying. Ruolan's vines ensnared him. Kael's cannon pressed to his temple.
"Mercy," Fen rasped.
Li Tian ignited the Core. "You'll have the same mercy you gave your disciples."
Light consumed Fen, leaving only frost-rimed bones.
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**The Oath of Unity**
At dawn, the alliance gathered at the citadel's base. Li Tian stood atop a rubble pile, the Core's light casting long shadows.
"The Sovereign thinks us fractured. Weak." His voice carried on spatial waves, cold as the Frostbite wastes. "He is wrong. You are not *my* alliance. You are blades forged in the same fire. The Ebon Bastion holds the Emperor's final weapon. We take it, or we die as embers."
Ruolan stepped forward, her war orchid blooming crimson. "The Verdant Lotus stands with the Core."
Kael's artillery unit slammed their fists to their chests. "Iron endures."
Even the Frostbite remnants bowed, their glacial qi forming a bridge of ice toward the horizon.
Xiaoling's voice warmed the Core: *"They're yours now. But for how long?"*
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**The March North**
The alliance crossed the Wailing Steppes, their march timed to the Bastion's pulse. Li Tian rode at the vanguard, his body a latticework of cracks held together by the Core's waning light. At night, he communed with Xiaoling's spirit, her form flickering in the artifact's glow.
"The Bastion's trials will be worse than the desert," she warned. "The Sovereign has rooted deep there."
Li Tian traced the Core's fractures. "Then we rip him out."
A scout's horn interrupted—a familiar banner fluttered ahead, tattered but unmistakable: the Burning Phoenix Clan, thought annihilated in the Sovereign's first purge. Their leader, a scarred woman with fire-forged eyes, knelt before Li Tian.
"We've waited years for a blade sharp enough to strike back. Lead us, and the Phoenix rises."
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**The Sovereign's Welcome**
At the Bastion's gates, the alliance halted. The walls dripped with void ichor, and the air reeked of decay. A figure awaited them—Mei Ling, the Eclipse Gauntlet fused to her arm, her eyes voids of static.
"Turn back," she rasped, her voice layered with the Sovereign's growl. "This is your last mercy."
Li Tian stepped forward, the Core's light clashing with her shadows. "You first."
The Gauntlet flared. The Bastion's gates opened with a groan.
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