Godslayer's Legacy: THE PATH TO SUPREMACY

The chamber remained frozen in stunned silence, the image of Rui's Primordial Core suspended in the air like a celestial anomaly. The golden threads binding its fractured surface pulsed faintly, casting rippling patterns of light across the assembled scholars and mages.

Grand Mage Caelren lowered his trembling hand, his emerald eyes locked onto the projection. Behind him, whispers stirred like dry leaves in a storm.

"A Primordial Core… it's impossible…"

"No one in history has ever possessed such a thing…"

One scholar fell to his knees, clutching his chest as though the mere sight of it had struck him down. Another simply turned away, unable to process the sight.

Caelren's voice was tight, barely above a whisper, yet it carried through the chamber.

"End the diagnostic. Now."

The diagnostic arrays powered down with a flicker, and the projection dissolved into shimmering particles of golden light. Rui exhaled slowly, his chest rising and falling with measured breaths as the golden threads beneath his skin dimmed once more.

Caelren turned to Kovar, his expression grave.

"Take him back to the chamber. Immediately."

Kovar's glass dome flared briefly with amber light as he stepped forward, placing a steadying hand on Rui's shoulder.

"Come, Rui. We're done here."

---

A few hours later, a chamber deep within the Council Citadel was bathed in the faint blue glow of mana-infused crystals, their steady hum mixing with the scratch of Kovar's quill on parchment. Endless stacks of alchemical tomes, runic diagrams, and dusty scrolls were strewn across tables, many of them still glowing faintly with recently activated glyphs.

Rui sat shirtless on an ornate examination platform in the center of the chamber. His silver eyes were fixed on the ceiling, but his focus was inward. His fractured core thrummed faintly, the golden threads weaving delicately across the cracks like fragile stitches holding glass together.

Kovar stood beside him, glass dome flickering with amber light as he examined Rui's core projection, a three-dimensional representation hovering in the air between them. The holographic core glimmered like a shattered sun, fractured and faintly pulsing with golden light.

"Infusion stability… declining. Fracture lines… unchanged. Threads still rejecting foreign mana." Kovar muttered under his breath, noting results into a worn leather journal.

Rui exhaled softly. "Another failure?"

Kovar hesitated, his hand briefly stopping mid-air before he resumed writing. "Not a failure, Rui. A… lack of success. There's a difference."

A flicker of faint humor crossed Rui's expression before it faded again.

Kovar turned away from the projection, pulling a vial of thick, glowing blue liquid from his desk. "This is Aetherium Draught, refined from pure leyline crystal shards. It's the most concentrated mana stabilizer we have."

Rui took the vial without hesitation, uncorked it, and drank it in one smooth motion. The liquid was icy and burned faintly as it slid down his throat. His core flared briefly, golden threads glowing faintly as they resisted the foreign mana.

The glow faded almost instantly. The fractures remained.

Kovar let out a sharp breath and slammed his gloved hand onto the table, scattering papers and ink bottles. Amber light flared briefly in his glass dome before dimming again.

"It's as if your core doesn't want to heal," Kovar said through gritted teeth. "The golden threads—they're alive in some way, Rui. They're holding you together, but they reject every outside attempt to reinforce them."

Rui glanced at his chest, where faint golden cracks shimmered beneath his skin. "Then… what now?"

---

The following days passed in a blur of diagrams, rituals, and endless alchemical concoctions.

Rui remained under observation, his body subjected to mana baths, stabilization rituals, and experimental infusions. His silver eyes glowed faintly under the arcane light of Kovar's sigils, but the golden threads binding his core remained stubbornly unyielding.

At night, Rui sat alone in the quiet chamber, staring into the golden light that faintly pulsed across his veins. His chest felt heavy—not from physical pain, but from the awareness of the fragile balance keeping him alive.

The runes etched into his irises shimmered faintly whenever he focused inward, granting him glimpses of his core—its fractures like fault lines across a dying sun.

He could feel it: the threads were holding, but only barely.

---

On the fifth day, Kovar stepped into Rui's chamber, exhaustion etched across his features. His gloved hands trembled slightly, and faint lines of amber light flickered sporadically within his glass dome.

He slumped into a chair across from Rui, dragging his hands down his face.

"I've exhausted every method, Rui," Kovar admitted, his voice hoarse. "Mana stabilization, ancient alchemical mixtures, even experimental runic therapy—your core rejects all of it."

Rui remained silent, his silver eyes locked onto Kovar's glass dome.

Kovar continued, his voice quieter now. "This isn't just a matter of mana control or alchemical reinforcement. Your core… it isn't broken in the same way as a mage's core would be. It's something older, something different."

Rui exhaled softly. "So what does that mean?"

Kovar's amber glow steadied for a brief moment as he met Rui's gaze. "It means that if there's an answer to this, it's not going to be in these tomes or chambers. It's going to be somewhere… else."

Rui frowned faintly. "Somewhere else?"

Kovar hesitated. "Legends speak of places where mana exists in its purest form. Sacred springs, leyline convergence points… places where the boundaries between our world and the mana streams thin."

For a long moment, neither spoke.

Rui stood slowly, his coat hanging loosely over his shoulders as he turned to face the faint glow of the distant city through the crystalline window.

"If that's where I need to go, Kovar… then I'll go."

Kovar let out a heavy breath. "Not yet, Rui. I need a few days. Days to cross-reference what little we know about Primordial Cores and these mana convergence sites."

Rui nodded once, his silver eyes reflecting the soft golden glow in his veins.

"Take your time, Kovar. But not too long."

---

As Kovar buried himself in research, Rui found himself walking the quiet halls of the Council Citadel at night, his Runic Eyes faintly glowing in the dark.

The world outside was beginning to stir with rumors—of golden threads, fractured cores, and an unyielding survivor of the Abyss.

Soon, Rui would need to face them—the scholars, the council, and the people of Eryndor.

But for now, the golden threads in his chest held steady, flickering faintly like distant stars in an endless void.

And Rui waited, the weight of the unknown pressing down on him.