The Eternal Crucible, the central capital of Sovereign Ignis’s domain, was a city that defied the natural instincts of survival. Most civilizations built their walls to keep the hostile elements of the world at bay. The demons of the flame lineage had instead marched directly into the caldera of a colossal and active volcano and built their home suspended over a roaring lake of liquid fire. It was a name befitting its grandeur. It was an imposing monument of indestructible architecture rising from the magma.

  Li Yu walked across an arching bridge constructed of dark ironstone and was accompanied by the silent Ash Guard captain. A rare honor that few got to enjoy but Li Yu wasn’t thinking of that. Below them the magma lake bubbled and popped. It was sending brilliant showers of golden sparks into the air.

  "This is the upper commercial tier," the Ash Guard stated. "Do not touch the structural wards. Do not instigate conflict."

  "I am just here to look," Li Yu assured him mildly.

  Despite the terrifying geography, The Eternal Crucible was a masterpiece of extreme engineering and absolute discipline. The commercial district consisted of wide, concentric rings carved directly into the inner walls of the volcano. Stalls and grand pavilions were constructed from heat treated bone, dark star metal and firejade.

  Li Yu spent the next two hours enjoying the role of an idle tourist. He wandered past merchants selling ingots of alloys that had been smelted in the magma below. He observed weaponsmiths hammering out massive greatswords on anvils that glowed white hot. This was entirely without the use of a forge. They simply channeled the heat of the city directly into the metal. Seeing all this forging reminded him of Krell and how happy he would have been to see all of this.

  Li Yu purchased a few packets of rare, fire resistant spiritual seeds. He traded a handful of spirit stones to a very confused merchant who couldn't fathom why a human would want volcanic cabbage spores.

  It was a fascinating display of life thriving in a harsh environment. Everyone moved with purpose. There was no haggling to slow things down or make trouble for others. Prices were set by decree to prevent disputes. There was no theft, as the penalty was immediate incineration. The absolute order of the city was suffocating but it was undeniably effective for maintaining order.

  Eventually, a subtle shift in the ambient temperature signaled a change. The heavy, oppressive heat that had saturated the city seemed to temporarily lighten. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from the atmosphere itself.

  The Ash Guard captain pressed a hand to the side of his helmet where a communication token was embedded on the inside. He was receiving a silent transmission.

  "The Sovereign summons you back to the Aegis of Flame," the captain announced. "The Lord Malos has concluded his work."

  Li Yu nodded and followed the guard back. When they arrived back at the intricately carved wooden doors of Asha's chambers, the doors were already wide open.

  Demon Lord Malos was leaning against the heavy stone wall of the corridor. He looked slightly pale and a fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead. It was a rare display of physical taxation for the ancient Sovereign. Peering into the tangled and fragile fate of a Demon Lord's dying daughter had clearly required a significant expenditure of his energy. Yet, despite the fatigue, Malos wore a serene and satisfied smile.

  Sovereign Ignis stood beside him. The apocalyptic aura that usually surrounded her was completely gone. In its place was an expression of grounding relief. She looked like a woman who had been carrying a mountain on her shoulders for years and had finally been permitted to put it down.

  "Ah, Li Yu! You have returned from the markets!" Malos greeted him cheerfully and pushed himself off the wall. "Did you find anything delightful to purchase?"

  "A few seeds," Li Yu replied while offering a polite bow to Ignis. "I trust the reading was successful?"

  "Fate is a chaotic, winding river, Li Yu," Malos said with his eyes twinkling with ancient wisdom. "It is full of treacherous rapids and hidden depths. But yes, I was able to peer through the ripples. I have shown our gracious host the stepping stones. The path forward will require immense effort and the current will be strong but the ember is not fated to fade just yet."

  He kept the details entirely vague and was respecting the privacy of the Sovereign's family but the implication was clear: Asha’s condition was not a terminal dead end. There was a cure or at least a method of stabilization that was waiting in her future.

  Ignis looked at Malos, her eyes filled with genuine gratitude.

  "The House of Flame honors its debts, Malos," Ignis said. "You have given me a direction. A true Sovereign does not forget such a gift." She then turned her gaze to Li Yu. "And I have not forgotten the terms of our bargain. The human was promised entry into the main vault. Come."

  She didn't summon guards or an entourage. Ignis simply turned and led them deeper into the subterranean levels of the Aegis of Flame.

  The temperature plummeted as they descended and was replaced by a metallic coldness that signaled the presence of supreme tier defensive arrays. They reached a colossal set of doors forged from solid star iron and engraved with thousands of shifting, burning runes.

  Ignis stepped forward and pressed her bare palm against the center of the doors. A drop of her Sovereign blood sizzled against the metal. The runes flared blindingly bright and the massive doors silently glided open. They revealed the treasury of a Demon Lord.

  The sheer volume of wealth was staggering.

  Mountains of flawless fire jade illuminated the cavernous space. Racks of supreme tier weapons hummed with contained violence. Shelves were lined with crystal vials containing the refined blood of ancient fire beasts and scrolls of devastating martial techniques were stacked to the ceiling. The air itself was thick with the scent of unbridled power.

  "You may select three items," Ignis stated while gesturing to the vast expanse of the vault. "Choose wisely, human. Opportunities such as this do not come twice."

  Malos nudged Li Yu with his elbow. "Go on, my friend! This is your reward for putting up with my eccentricities on the road. Find something that truly captures the grandeur of your journey!"

  Li Yu walked slowly down the center aisle of the vault while his hands rested casually in his pockets. He looked at a massive greatsword that radiated heat. He looked at a pill bottle containing a 'Sun Swallowing Elixir'. He looked at a set of armor woven from the feathers of a phoenix off breed.

  To any other cultivator in the realm, this was paradise. Wars had been fought over single items resting on these shelves. But Li Yu’s mind was calculating something entirely different.

  ‘I already have five vaults similar to this one sitting in my inner world,’ Li Yu thought pragmatically.

  ‘The Veiled Lotus wiped out Malakor and the others and I absorbed everything they owned. I don't need supreme fire jade. I don't need a flaming sword. If I take her most prized and powerful artifacts, Ignis will fulfill the bargain but she will remember my greed. It will breed resentment or just thoughts of my greed. In this realm I am simply too weak. Malos is with me but would he defend me? Drawing the resentment of a Sovereign over a trinket you don't even need is the definition of stupidity.’

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  He needed items that fulfilled the bargain without stepping out of line. He needed things that were valuable enough to be in a Sovereign's vault to make it seem like he was not just taking random things but considered completely useless to a lineage of fire cultivators.

  Li Yu strayed from the center aisle and was moving toward the darker and more neglected corners of the massive treasury. He reached a dusty and dimly lit alcove at the very back of the vault.

  Here, the ambient heat was severely dampened by a localized array. One that was specifically designed to contain the items on the shelves from being affected by it.

  Li Yu’s eyes settled on a small collection of water attribute treasures. They had likely been taken as spoils of war and tossed into this corner simply because it was a waste to throw them away, even though no demon of the flame lineage could ever successfully use them without crippling their own meridians.

  He reached out and picked up a heavy, fist sized pearl that radiated a bone chilling frost. It was a Sky Frost Pearl. It wasn’t used for anything besides looking very nice and it glowed. Li Yu intended to use it as a gift or a light source.

  Next, he selected a small and sealed crystal vial containing a single drop of indigo liquid. It was the Tear of a Drowned Sovereign. It is an incredibly dense water attribute resource that was used for body refinement. Finally, his hand closed around a jagged and rusted piece of dark metal that looked like a broken anchor chain. It vibrated with the untamed power of the crushing tides. It was a Deep Sea Leviathan Scale. It was also suited for his physique.

  He gathered the three items and walked back to the front of the vault. Ignis and Malos were waiting by the heavy iron doors.

  "I have made my selections, Sovereign," Li Yu said politely while holding out the three items for her inspection. Ignis looked at theSky Frost Pearl, the vial of heavy water and the rusted Leviathan Scale. Her fiery eyebrows rose slightly in genuine surprise.

  She knew the objective value of those items. They were valuable resources but nothing compared to many of the items in there. She also knew their practical value to the House of Flame: absolutely zero. They were actively detrimental to her people. By selecting them, the human was claiming his promised reward while simultaneously leaving all of her clan's culturally significant power completely untouched.

  It was a display of political tact, humility and situational awareness. The Sovereign of Flame’s gaze softened just a fraction. She looked at Li Yu not as a greedy human but as a shrewd and respectful wanderer.

  "A curious choice," Ignis noted while her voice carried a tone of approval. "You bypass the fires of conquest for the cold depths of the abyss. You have a unique perspective on value, human. You may keep them."

  "Thank you, Sovereign," Li Yu bowed.

  Malos, however, was staring at the items in Li Yu’s hands with an expression of theatrical outrage.

  "Li Yu!" Malos gasped while clutching his chest as if he had been physically struck. "I traded the mind rending secrets of the cosmos to grant you access to this treasury! My foresight is worth a mountain of supreme treasures! And you pick a wet rock, a vial of puddle water and a rusted chain?!"

  "They resonate with my personal cultivation path, Malos," Li Yu replied smoothly as he was tucking the items into his spatial ring. "I have a fondness for the ocean. These suit me perfectly."

  "You are underselling my services!" Malos complained loudly and turned to Ignis. "Ignis, tell him to take the Sun Shattering Halberd! Tell him to be greedier! This is insulting to the economic principles of barter I have been practicing!"

  Ignis actually let out a short and quiet laugh. It was a rare sound from her, the first time Li Yu had seen her laugh. It was like the crackle of a warm hearth.

  "The bargain is struck, Malos, and the human has made his choice," Ignis said as she waved a hand to dismiss the Demon Lord's complaints. "He possesses far more wisdom than you give him credit for. The Aegis of Flame is open to you both for the remainder of the day. Rest, explore and depart when you wish. I must return to my daughter to begin the preparations you outlined."

  She offered Malos a final nod and cast one last approving glance at Li Yu. She then strode away down the corridor with her mind clearly focused entirely on Asha's recovery.

  "A rusted chain," Malos muttered while shaking his head as the heavy vault doors sealed themselves shut. "I could have negotiated for a province and my mouthpiece walks away with damp garbage. The tragedy of the mortal condition." Malos didn’t look mad and had a smile on his face. He most likely knew that Li Yu would choose below-value treasures.

  "Let me buy you lunch to make up for it," Li Yu offered with a smile. "I saw a place in the commercial district roasting full drakes over open magma vents."

  Malos’s demeanor shifted instantly from theatrical despair to boundless enthusiasm. "Ah! Culinary exploration! A magnificent idea! Lead the way, my friend. Let us see how the capital's cuisine compares to the agonizing noodles of Cinderholme."

  The two of them left the oppressive security of the inner palace and returned to the suspended bridges of The Eternal Crucible.

  For the next few hours, they enjoyed the city. They visited a massive, open air pavilion where chefs utilized the ambient heat of the volcano to prepare extravagant meals. They dined on charred bone marrow soup that hissed and popped in their bowls. They enjoyed thick slices of spiced ash bread that tasted intensely of smoked earth and rare spiritual herbs.

  Malos was having a great time and never mentioned the vault treasures again. He even managed to corner a wealthy merchant and through sheer persistence and an overwhelming display of confidence, successfully traded one of his painted river stones for a finely crafted, heat resistant cloak. The merchant must have known someone was wrong when the guards weren’t stepping in as they normally did with such things.

  "It is all about the posture, Li Yu," Malos proclaimed proudly as he was swirling the new crimson cloak around his shoulders. They walked toward the grand exit gates of the city. "If you project absolute certainty that a wet rock is a supreme artifact, the universe simply aligns to make the merchant believe it. A flawless execution of commerce."

  "I think the merchant just wanted to get away from you because he saw that no one was stepping in to help get rid of you. He was smart enough to know that you were special." Li Yu pointed out pragmatically.

  "Details, my friend. Details."

  They approached the towering dark stone gates that marked the primary exit from The Eternal Crucible. Beyond them lay the main highway that would eventually lead them out of Ignis’s territory. The journey to Ignis’s territory had been strange, terrifying and surprisingly profitable.

  Li Yu was just stepping onto the final suspension bridge leading to the gates when a sound shattered the orderly peace of the capital. It was a deep, resonant BONG.

  Li Yu froze. He recognized the heavy and mournful toll immediately. It was the Sentinel Chime.

  BONG.

  The citizens of The Eternal Crucible reacted instantly. Just like in the border city, the strict discipline of the populace took over. Merchants abandoned their stalls, citizens hurried into reinforced shelters and the heavy blast doors of the commercial pavilions slammed shut.

  BONG.

  "Three tolls," Malos murmured as he was looking up at the sky. The cheerful merchant persona melted away and was replaced by the analytical gaze of a Sovereign. "That is not a lockdown for an assassination, Li Yu."

  Above the caldera of the volcano, the permanent canopy of ember lit ash suddenly began to warp.

  It wasn't the white hot and furious flame of Ignis. The sky was turning a sickly and corrosive shade of deep violet. The ambient temperature, which was normally a suffocating dry heat, instantly plummeted. It was replaced by a chilling and toxic dampness that made the dark stone bridges slick with sudden condensation.

  "Report!" An Ash Guard commander roared from the top of the outer gate and his voice amplified across the caldera.

  "Massive spatial disruption on the southern border!" A scout yelled back and pointed frantically toward the violet sky. "The outer waystations have gone dark! A Sovereign aura is approaching at maximum velocity! Another Demon Lord is attacking the border!"

  The warning sirens began to wail. It was a high pitched shriek that harmonized terrifyingly with the tolling of the Sentinel Chime. The entire military apparatus of The Eternal Crucible activated simultaneously. Thousands of crimson armored Ash Guards poured from the barracks and quickly formed defensive formations along the caldera's rim.

  Li Yu let out a long and exhausted sigh once again. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and was feeling a massive headache building behind his eyes.

  "We were ten feet from the exit," Li Yu muttered while staring at the massive iron gates that were currently grinding shut to seal the city. "Ten feet."

  "Oh, marvelous!" Malos cheered as he was clapping his hands together. The newly acquired crimson cloak snapped in the toxic and violet wind as the Demon Lord looked up at the approaching anomaly. "A clash of Sovereigns! An unprovoked border invasion!"

  Malos grabbed Li Yu by the arm and turned him around to face the city.

  "Li Yu, my friend, we absolutely cannot leave now," Malos declared. His eyes were already shining with pure delight. "We must find a high vantage point! We need to secure front row seats for the apocalypse!"

  Li Yu didn't bother arguing. Fate, it seemed, was not done throwing Sovereigns into his lap. He simply adjusted his grip on his spatial ring and followed Malos back into the fortified city. Readying his mind to witness whatever catastrophe was about to unfold.