Chapter 550: Abyssal XIII
The Tower shuddered as if it were caught between two verdicts—collapse or rebirth. The marrow’s roar didn’t fade; it swelled, a tidal wave of voices that had been chained for ages. Each chain rose like a banner, each soul crying not for vengeance, but for remembrance.
The Thrones writhed in the binding storm, their dominion-layers unraveling in chaos. Glass splintered into prisms, reflecting not silence, but memories they had tried to erase. The Furnace of commandments cracked, flames sputtering as forgotten laws buried beneath eternity resurfaced. Crowns dissolved into shadowless mist, their faceless authority mocked by laughter echoing from Roman’s specters.
Milim tore into the breach like a calamity incarnate, ripping decree apart and tossing it into the marrow’s tide. Naval’s dragon-flame coiled through the battlefield, a serpent of molten will that bit into commandments until they burned hollow. Roselia’s constellations spun wider, weaving memory into a cosmos that clashed headlong against the Thrones’ storm. Liliana’s threads bound chain and hymn, braiding the uprising into harmony, no longer wild but orchestrated.
And Leon—at the center of it all—did not tremble. He stepped forward, every pace resounding like a drumbeat the Tower itself could not ignore. His flame no longer stood apart from the marrow—it was marrow, it was hymn, it was every erased soul finding voice through him.
The Thrones shrieked, their choir breaking apart into desperate fragments:
"Heretic—"
"Unmaking—"
"Blasphemy—"
"You are not law—"
Leon raised his hand again, flame coiled tight like a conductor’s baton. His gaze didn’t waver. His voice struck like a verdict:
"I am not law. I am not silence. I am resonance."
The marrow answered in a roar that shook the Tower’s bones. The chains tightened, binding the storm of Thrones. Cracks raced across their dominion-layers, shattering glass, splitting crowns, unraveling shadow, and quenching furnace fire.
The stair split further, entire spans falling into abyss, yet Leon’s allies stood unbroken in the eye of the quake.
The Thrones’ storm began to falter, their convergence collapsing into chaos. The once-perfect choir fractured into screaming discord, like gods stripped bare.
And in that fracture, in that impossible moment of imbalance, Leon’s flame surged brightest—not as a blaze to consume, but as a resonance to remake.
The Tower groaned louder, its marrow chains dragging eternity down.
The Council of Thrones staggered.
The war for the Upper Thrones had truly begun.
The marrow’s roar didn’t let go—it only deepened, dragging the Tower into a resonance that made even the abyss below quiver like liquid glass. The Council of Thrones no longer stood as one flawless convergence. Their storm splintered, authority unraveling until their forms tore loose from one another, shattering into fragments of dominion.
The first to break free was a vast silhouette of shadow, its voice a whisper that split thought:
"I am the Silence Crown. The marrow’s choir will fall mute."
Another followed, fire spilling from its broken throne, its body a furnace made flesh:
"I am the Commandment Furnace. You will kneel in ash."
Glass shards coalesced into a jagged humanoid, each movement scattering reflections of false memory:
"I am the Archive Glass. History bends where I stand."
One by one, they split off, six Thrones forming a half-ring around Leon and his allies, each dominion dripping raw eternity like a wound that refused to close.
But they weren’t whole. Each bore fractures—chains digging into them, marrow hymns coiling through their forms, dragging remnants of erased voices against their wills.
Milim’s eyes gleamed, predator-sharp. "Finally... no more choir. Just bodies to break."
Naval planted his blade in the ground, dragon-flame spiraling up the length. "Six fronts. We’ll hold, Leon. Just make the marrow sing louder."
Roselia’s stars spun into shields, aligning themselves into constellations that caught the first spray of glass. "They’re weakened. They’re not used to standing alone."
Liliana’s threads gleamed like silver rivers in her hands. "Then let’s cut them apart, strand by strand."
Leon said nothing at first. He only felt the marrow flame pulse inside him—not his alone anymore, but carried with every chain and every voice that had been erased. His hand lowered, and his allies moved like a tide unleashed.
The battlefield shifted instantly.
Milim slammed into the Commandment Furnace, her laughter clashing with the roar of eternal fire.
Naval intercepted the Silence Crown, dragon-flame clashing against the void of muted dominion.
Roselia’s stars tangled with the Archive Glass, constellations shattering illusions before they could rewrite memory.
Liliana bound two lesser Thrones at once, threads looping their dominions into cages of hymn and marrow.
And Leon—he walked toward the heart of the fracture, where the last Throne staggered, a crown of shadow and light both, still struggling to converge, refusing to accept its unraveling.
It whispered not with rage, but with fear:
"...If you unmake us... what becomes of order?"
Leon’s flame flared in his chest. He lifted his gaze, steady, resolute.
"Order doesn’t end. It changes. And I’ll make sure it remembers."
The marrow chains coiled tighter, dragging at the Thrones as the duel lines crystallized.
The war was no longer against a choir.
It was six broken gods against Leon’s unbroken resonance.
The Tower shook like a struck bell, each duel igniting a storm of dominion that crashed against the marrow’s resonance.
Milim tore through the battlefield like a star gone feral, her blows detonating against the Commandment Furnace. Every punch shredded commandments, every laugh drowned out decrees that once forced worlds to bend. The Furnace roared, spitting firestorms large enough to sear through dimensions, but Milim’s power didn’t burn—it devoured. Sparks rained like meteors, their clash a war of raw destruction.
Naval faced the Silence Crown, its dominion smothering every sound, turning flame into hollow gestures. Yet the dragon knight’s will was fire incarnate. His blade hissed with molten fury, carving words into the silence. Each swing wasn’t just steel—it was defiance, each strike a roar that couldn’t be muted. The Crown’s void stuttered, cracks spiderwebbing across its form as dragon-flame wrote sound back into the mute dominion.