Blackthorn Keep cast a long shadow over the ruined highlands of North Azure.
Once a fortress of the fallen monarchs, it had become Natalia Taylor's stronghold — quiet, forbidden, alive with spirit echoes. Jagged towers clawed at the ashen sky, warding off even the bravest dragons.
The smell of frost and burned incense lingered in the air, carried by winds that howled like forgotten ghosts.
Wrapped in a cloak of night silk, Natalia stood at the edge of the parapet, her silver eyes reflecting the distant ruins of Old Natalia City — the place where her rise began... and where it would now be surpassed.
"The world trembles in circles," she whispered, drawing an arc in the frost with her gloved finger. "But I will carve a line through time itself."
She stepped forward, casting a sigil into the air. A portal split open, shaped like a crescent moon. The air shimmered with power — it smelled of lightning and ancient ink. She entered without hesitation.
Beneath the Old Natalia City-
The sanctum was deeper than legend knew. A subterranean cathedral woven from veins of spirit crystal and obsidian pillars.
Light from ancient glyphs lit her path in spiraling arcs.
Here, Natalia's presence was law. The weight of her spirit energy pressed into the air like thunder before a storm.
She walked to the center — a vast platform etched with 3000 Daos, each painstakingly studied and mastered: Fire, Void, Silence, Rage, Memory, Ice, Gravity, Breath, Binding, Decay…
Each one of them danced to her will.
"Three thousand truths," she said, standing in the center. "But none eternal."
She closed her eyes. Spirit energy surged from her core, spinning outward in radiant rings. Her cloak tore from the pressure. Her hair whipped wildly, suspended in timeless wind. Every Dao she had ever bent to her command began unraveling — not in chaos, but harmony.
She chanted no words. Her will alone guided the storm.
The 3000 Daos began to merge, lines of light weaving into a single strand, so fine it could not be seen, only felt. Time itself slowed — the very concept of 'now' losing meaning.
Her body lifted off the ground.
"I cast away the laws of others. I forge my own," she declared.
From her spirit sea, a lotus bloomed — white and gold, petals shaped like hourglasses. A sphere of endless twilight formed behind her. Past, present, and future collapsed into a singularity.
Natalia floated alone in the heavens, suspended above the shimmering skyline of the city named after her. Below, spires of blacksteel and spirit-crystal hummed with ambient energy, buildings rising like silver daggers into the clouds.
Hover-carriages and gliders had stopped mid-flight. The flow of traffic froze.
Even monsters lurking in shadowed alleyways slinked away, afraid to meet the gaze of something far older — and far more dangerous — than they understood.
A pulse of timeless energy expanded from her chest in slow, rhythmic waves. The air warped. Clouds coiled backward. Time hesitated.
Natalia's eyes opened slowly, their usual cold sharpness now glazed with flickers of silver and indigo — the colors of eternity.
She had done it.
She had merged the three thousand Daos, and stepped into the Dao Forming Stage.
The Timeless Dao, her creation, bound not to any rule of heaven or realm, now pulsed in harmony with her breath.
"Even the city holds its breath," she whispered to herself, a thin smile tracing her lips. "Good."
From her vantage, she could see the domed plaza where Mayor John Kim once ruled, before she spilled his blood and claimed the city.
His golden statue had long since been melted down, the melted remains poured into the city's sewers as her first decree giving him a symbolic burial.
She turned her attention upward.
Something stirred in the sky.
At first it was a sound — soft, vibrating like a song sung in reverse.
Then the clouds opened with a soundless scream, and a rift tore across the sky, a clean wound bleeding light.
From the wound, a figure descended.
Not fast — but deliberate. As if the very laws of reality were announcing his arrival.
He wore robes stitched from stars, and his hair was liquid silver. A crown of burning runes floated above his brow, and the light around him didn't cast shadows — it erased them.
Natalia's smile faded.
"So… the heavens do still watch."
The figure stopped thirty feet above her. Eyes like dying suns studied her not with fury — but disappointment.
"Natalia Taylor," he said. "Creator of the Timeless Dao. Your existence defies balance."
His voice wasn't loud, yet it struck the buildings below like thunder.
Glass cracked. Flocks of spirit-birds fled the city.
"And you are?" she asked, unimpressed.
"I am Veyren. Guardian of Heavenly Court. Ancient Immortal of the Four Pillars of Court."
Natalia scoffed. "A title with too many syllables."
"You tamper with time itself. Such power has shattered realms before. I come to offer one chance — seal your Dao, and retreat from the heavens."
She floated closer. The wind dared not blow.
"Tell your heavens," she whispered, "if they want my Dao sealed—"
"—they can bleed for it."
The clouds tore open wider behind him.
Three more Ancient Immortals stepped forward.
Veyren's voice was grave.
"Then you'll face judgment… not from one, but from the Four Pillars of the Court."
Meanwhile elsewhere, Duke Silver stared across the horizon, silver eyes narrowed as the glow of battle loomed beyond distant clouds.
His draconic blood warned him. Something ancient had arrived.
Beside him, the Immortal Rael whistled low.
"She really did it," Rael muttered. "Natalia formed her own Dao."
"And now," Duke murmured, "Heaven responds."
Rael turned serious for once. "The Four Pillars don't move unless a threat to the Heavenly court. That Timeless Dao of hers... it's rewriting the order."
Behind them, Hope Taylor stood watching, her bright eyes locked on the distant sky's crackling rifts. Spirit energy danced across the sky like lightning frozen in time.
"What's going on?" she asked, voice hushed.
"A battle we can't afford to be near," Duke said, already drawing a spell circle in the air.
"Natalia's power is drawing the eyes of Immortals of the Heavenly Court. If they fight, continents will fall."
Rael looked at Hope, concern creeping into his usual mischief.
"Time to run, little lookalike. This isn't your stage yet."
Duke's teleportation spell flared to life — a silver gate opening behind them.
"We're going to the southern edge of Azure," Duke said, urgent. "Hope, stay close. You'll begin your training — but not here."
Hope hesitated for a heartbeat, then nodded and stepped through.
Rael followed, but not before glancing back at the sky.
"If Natalia survives," he muttered, "Heaven's Court may not."
Back in the skies above Natalia City, the Four Pillars of Heaven raised their hands in silence.
And Natalia?
She smirked and whispered:
"Let me decide who stays."
The sky cracked as the first blow landed — and reality itself flinched.