Chapter 14:The Fractured Throne

The void between worlds was not silent. It was a chorus of dying code, a cacophony of unraveling reality where the laws of the game dissolved into static. Leonis tumbled through the abyss, his body a canvas of fractured shadows and guttering flame. The bloodlines within himonce a curse, now a weaponthrashed like caged beasts, their conflict carving fissures into his flesh. His arms, though reformed after the Heartforge's collapse, were no longer just limbs.

They were conduits, raw and pulsating, as if the darkness and light within him had only agreed to a temporary ceasefire.

"Leonis!"*

Celia's voice cut through the chaos, sharp as a blade. Her handwarm, realet osed around his wrist, her moonmark flaring silver in the consuming dark. The light from her scar was a beacon, a defiance against the Sovereign's hunger. Nearby, Fenrir's snarls echoed, his claws scrabbling against the formless void, while Thoren's whispers were a frantic counterpoint to the Sovereign's laughtereloser now, hungrier.

Then-*Impact.*

They landed in a place that defied logic.

The Fractured Throne loomed before them, a jagged spire of corrupted data, its surface veined with pulsing shadowglass. At its apex floated the Sovereign's nexusnot the monstrous dragon of legend, not a god, but a*man*.

The CEOs face flickered across the throne's surface, his features stretched into a rictus grin, his eyes hollow with greed.

*"Welcome,'* he purred, his voice the hum of a thousand servers. *'To the end of your story."*

Leonis forced himself upright, his shadow-arm writhing. *"Youre not a god. Just a parasite."*

The CEO's laughter was the sound of a blade dragged across bone. *"And

31/54 youre not a hero. Just a glitch."*

A notification seared across Leoniss vision:

*Destroy the Sovereign's nexus. Warning: Direct contact will erase your existence.*

Celia's grip tightened on his wrist. *"We do this together."*

Fenrir bared his teeth, golden eyes reflecting the throne's sickly glow. *"Or not at all."*

---

The throne *moved*.

Tendrils of liquid code lashed outnot at Leonis, but at Celia. The originals memories still lived in her scar, a backdoor for the Sovereign's will. She gasped as the corruption slithered up her arm, her moonmark flickering like a dying star.

*"Leonis!* Her voice was raw, desperate. *"It's using me!'

He lunged, but Fenrir was faster.

The wolf-prince *slammed* into Celia, knocking her clearjust as the tendrils speared *him* instead. His golden eyes widened as the corruption burrowed into his chest, his fur blackening at the roots.

*"Fenrir!'* Thoren's cry was ragged.

Fenrir grinned, blood dripping from his fangs. *'Told you l'd die first."*

Then he *ran*straight for the throne.

The Sovereign's snarl shook the void. Fenrir's body *detonated* in a storm of golden light, his sacrifice ripping a fissure in the throne's defenses. The explosion hurled Leonis backward, but Celia caught him, her arms trembling.

*"He bought us seconds,"* she whispered.

Leonis's shadow-arm coiled around her wrist. *'Then we dont waste them.'*

---

The throne's core pulseda- heartbeat of pure data. Thoren staggered forward, his glasses cracked, his fingers flying over a holographic keypad only he could see.

*"The formula!* His voice was feverish. *"It needs a catalyst!"*

Leonis understood. The scientist wasnt just hacking the throne.

He was *rewriting* it.

Celia's breath hitched. *"Thoren, no!'*

The old man smiled. *"I taught you better than this, Leonis."*

Then he *plunged* his hands into the core.

Light eruptednot shadow, not flame, but something *purer*. Thoren's body dissolved into strands of golden code, his consciousness merging with the throne's mechanisms. The Sovereign's scream was a symphony of static as the system *rebelled*, its own architecture turning against it.

*"Now!"* Thoren's voice echoed from the chaos. *"Strike now!"+

Leonis didnt hesitate.

He *Voidstepped*.

For three seconds, he was *everywhere*a-ghost in the Sovereign's mind, a spark in its shadow. He saw the truth: the CEO's consciousness, frail and human, cowering behind layers of stolen power.

And he saw the flaw.

The original Celia hadnt been a weapon.

Shed been a *lock*.

And Leonis?

He was the *key*.

-

Leonis rematerialized before the core, his fractured eyes locking onto the CEO's holographic face. *"You lose.'*

The CEO's grin faltered. *"You cant"t

*"Watch me."*

Leonis *slammed* his hands into the coreand *pulled*.

Not to destroy.

To *remember*.

The world *split*.

Memories flooded the voidnot just his, but *theirs*:

- Celia in the lab, her hands steady as she sabotaged the toxin meant to erase him.

- Fenrir's laughter as