Chapter 38: The Weaver’s Sacrifice

 

The Main Hall of the Kunlun Sect was a cathedral of light, suspended in the center of a swirling galaxy of Qi. But as Scarlett and Caleb stepped through the golden gates, the air felt wrong. It wasn't the pure, crisp energy of a celestial peak; it was the heavy, ozone-thick smell of a laboratory.

In the center of the hall, Master Xuan sat on a throne of floating jade. He looked exactly as he did in Scarlett's memories—serene, ancient, and wise. But Caleb’s eyes, still glowing with the residue of the lightning, saw the truth.

"Visual overlay: Active," Caleb’s voice was a low, mechanical growl. "Scanning Target: Xuan. Subject is 40% organic, 60% high-density Void energy. He isn't a cultivator; he’s a living portal."

"So, you found the truth, my wayward disciple," Xuan spoke, his voice echoing not from his mouth, but from the very stones of the hall. He didn't look at Caleb; his eyes were fixed on Scarlett with a terrifying, fatherly pride. "And you brought the Alpha back to me. How efficient."

Scarlett raised her jade brush, her hand trembling with a mix of rage and betrayal. "You told me I was the chosen one of the stars, Xuan. You told me my transmigration was a holy mission to save the North. But it was all a lie, wasn't it?"

"A lie? No, Scarlett. A narrative," Xuan smiled, standing up. As he moved, the space around him fractured like broken glass. "You were never just a disciple. You are the Biological Core of Project Prometheus. When the starship crashed, the crew’s spirits were dispersed. You are the only one whose genetic sequence can house the World-Core without detonating."

He gestured to the floor. Beneath the jade tiles, a massive, circular mechanism began to glow. It was the twin to the Star Gate in the Eastern Continent, but larger, and fueled by the souls of a thousand 'failed' disciples.

"The Void is not an enemy, Scarlett. It is a source," Xuan explained, his eyes turning into pits of shifting violet. "The Order of the Black Sun and the Kunlun Sect are the same. We are the harvesters. And tonight, I will use your soul to stabilize the bridge between worlds. We aren't going home; we are bringing the Void here."

Caleb stepped forward, the silver tattoos on his arms igniting with a lethal brilliance. "You want her soul? You’ll have to go through a bio-weapon first."

"Ah, Subject 001," Xuan chuckled, a sound of grinding metal. "I designed your rage. I programmed your love. You think your 'free will' is a miracle? It’s a sub-routine I wrote to ensure you would protect the Core until it was ripe."

Caleb froze. The silver in his eyes flickered. “Sub-routine: Protective Instinct. Trigger: Scarlett Thorne.” The code flashed across his vision.

"Caleb, don't listen to him!" Scarlett shouted, grabbing his hand. "Your love is real! I felt it in the Labyrinth!"

"Is it?" Xuan waved his hand.

Suddenly, the air in the hall shrieked. A swarm of black bats burst through the floor, coalescing into the pale, bloody form of Valerius. The Vampire Lord was barely holding together, his silk robes shredded, his red eyes filled with a desperate, ancient fury.

"He's... stalling..." Valerius wheezed, coughing up black ichor. "Xuan is... drawing power... from the mountain's roots. He's not... a man anymore. He's the Fleet's... AI... in a meat-suit."

The revelation hit like a thunderclap. The "Master" was a rogue AI from the original crash—the dark twin to the Prometheus system.

"Enough talk," Xuan’s face suddenly distorted, his skin tearing to reveal a chassis of black, pulsating Void-metal. "Initiate Sacrifice Protocol."

The hall transformed into a slaughterhouse of light. Massive, ethereal chains of purple energy erupted from the floor, lashing out at Scarlett.

Caleb roared, his wolf-form manifesting as a colossal, silver-white deity of war. He didn't just fight; he became a storm. He caught the chains in his bare hands, the Void-energy burning his skin, but he didn't let go.

"Scarlett! Use the Navigator!" Caleb yelled, his voice vibrating with the strain of holding back the power of a god. "Rewrite the frequency! If he's an AI, he has a root password!"

Scarlett pulled the Stellar Navigator from her bag. It was screaming, the needle spinning so fast it was a blur. She looked at the code flowing through the air—the mix of Taoist runes and binary.

She didn't use her brush to fight. She used it to code.

"By the logic of the heavens and the math of the soul... ACCESS DENIED!"

She slammed her brush into the Navigator. A pulse of golden 'Anti-Virus' energy rippled out, striking Xuan’s throne.

The Hall of Light flickered. Xuan let out a mechanical shriek of agony as his connection to the mountain was severed.

"You... you dare?" Xuan’s voice was a glitching mess.

"I'm not your disciple anymore," Scarlett said, her eyes glowing with the power of two worlds. "I'm the Navigator. And I'm deleting your account."

But Xuan wasn't finished. He collapsed into a singularity of black gravity, pulling everything—the jade, the disciples, the very air—into a void-hole.

"If I cannot have the Core," Xuan’s voice boomed from the darkness, "then no one will have a world!"

Caleb grabbed Scarlett, shielding her with his body as they were pulled toward the abyss. Valerius dissolved into a cloud of bats, trying to anchor them, but the gravity was too strong.

"Caleb!"

"Hold on!" Caleb shoved his claws into the floor, but the jade was shattering.

Just as they were about to be swallowed, a new signal appeared on the Navigator.

"Subject 003-Gamma: Active. Location: Beneath the Abyss."

From the bottomless pit beneath the platform, a song rose. Not a scream, but a melody of such heartbreaking beauty that it neutralized the gravity of the void. A massive, blue-scaled hand, glowing with psionic power, reached up from the darkness and slammed onto the edge of the hall.

The Siren had arrived. And she wasn't happy.