Part I: A Gate of Violet Flame
The seventh Gate did not open like a door.
It peeled reality apart.
The violet light poured like blood from a wound in the sky.The sound it made was not thunder—but screaming silence.
Mujin stepped forward, arm shaking.Each of the seven seals on his body burned in unison, humming like tuning forks made of bone.
Elder Gihyeon held his breath.
"This place was not meant for the living."
Mujin: "But I was never just the living, was I?"
The Gate widened—revealing a stairway of floating stones,spiraling downward into what looked like an abyss carved in moonlight.
Part II: Echoes from the Deep
As they descended, the air grew thick—not with pressure, but with memory.
Walls flickered in and out of sight, carved with images of war, betrayal, and burial.
Gihyeon whispered,
"This is no mere vault. This is the Emperor's oubliette."
"They didn't honor him. They erased him."
At the bottom of the spiral, a throne.
Shattered.Bent.Covered in roots of crystallized black jade.
And on it—
A corpse.
Draped in robes older than time, wearing a crown split in two.
But the corpse's eyes were open.
Part III: The Forgotten Emperor Wakes
Mujin approached.His breath caught in his throat.
Then—
The corpse moved.
A single finger.
Then a whisper.
"You bear my chains..."
The air shattered around them.A shockwave of violet and gold threw Mujin to his knees.
The corpse rose.The flesh reformed.Eyes glowed like burning moons.
"They sealed me with seven lies."
"And now, you break them with seven truths."
"Why, child of two worlds? Why now?"
Mujin struggled to stand.
"I didn't mean to free you…"
"But I won't run from what I've done."
The Emperor stepped down from his ruined throne.His presence was crushing—like a star collapsed into human shape.
"Then prove it, Mujin of Seoul. Master of Seals. Bearer of the Skycut Fang."
"Prove you can carry what comes next."
He raised a single finger.
And the prison turned into an arena.
Part IV: Trial of Ash and Crown
The duel wasn't fast.It wasn't brutal.
It was inevitable.
Every blow exchanged was like a test of Mujin's resolve.The Emperor didn't fight to kill—he fought to uncover.
"You wear the Seal," the Emperor said, parrying."But you haven't chosen who you are."
"Are you the broken man from Seoul, or the heir to something far more dangerous?"
"You can't be both."
Mujin screamed, unleashing a new form:The Heaven-Cracked Form, born from the pain of all seven relics.
His strike landed.The Emperor stepped back, hand bleeding gold.
And then—he smiled.
"Then I name you my Wound."
"And my Heir."
Epilogue: Crown of the Nameless
The prison collapsed.
The throne dissolved.
In its place: a crown. Floating, untouched by time.
Mujin did not touch it.
But the Seal burned bright.
He looked up—
And saw, for the first time, the stars aligning into a sword-shaped constellation.
A sign.
Far away, in the Empire's shadowed corners—
They saw it too.
And began to move.
To be continued.