Arthur Sterling didn’t sweat.This was despite the fact that the ambient temperature in the Imperial Box could have melted steel.

He stood tall with his jaw set. He absorbed the Celestial Emperor’s words with the calculating focus of a predator dissecting a rival’s business model.

"Enlighten me," Arthur said. His voice was a calm steady baritone that cut through the roaring solar hum of the Emperor’s body. "If the Origin Font isn’t a power source, what is it?"

The Emperor slowly stepped down from his glass throne.

"It is a formatting tool," the God replied plainly. "Every millennium a new champion arises. They are filled with ambition and pride. They step into the Origin Font expecting to bathe in limitless power."

The Emperor raised a hand. A holographic projection of a massive glowing pool of

liquid silver appeared between them.

"Instead the Font strips them of their identity," the Emperor continued. A hint of cruel satisfaction could be heard in his voice. "It erases their ego and their memories and their free will. It rewrites their conceptual foundation. It turns the strongest warrior of the generation into a perfectly obedient mindless general for my Vanguard. It is the ultimate corporate restructuring. I do not

reward ambition. I harvest it."

Behind Arthur Lyra let out a sharp quiet breath.

The rogue had spent her life idolizing the legends of the Divine Selection. She had dreamed of the ultimate prize. Hearing the truth of the Heavens’ greatest reward shattered the last remnants of her celestial faith.

"Brainwashing," Arthur scoffed and shook his head slowly. "You farm the lower realms for energy and you lobotomize your best fighters so you don’t have to deal with insubordination. Your management style is incredibly lazy."

"It is efficient," the Emperor countered. "But you. You are too chaotic to format. Your foundation rejects my laws. You would break the Font before it could erase you. You are of no use to my Vanguard."

"Good. Saves me the trouble of quitting," Arthur sneered.

The Emperor’s blinding featureless face seemed to tilt. His gaze drifted past Arthur’s broad shoulders. The dying star’s attention landed squarely on the four women standing behind him.

Despite the oversized drab grey servant robes hiding their divine armor, they couldn’t completely mask the sheer overwhelming density of their cores.

"However," the Emperor murmured. The heat in the room took on a sickening lustful frequency. "Your assets are quite exquisite. The ice mage. The abyssal anomaly. The rogue and my own fallen Valkyrie."

Aurelia flinched as the Emperor’s gaze lingered on her.

"Leave the women," the Emperor commanded. His tone brokered no argument. "They will make fine additions to my personal court. A tribute to compensate for the disruption you have caused. Do this and I will grant you a swift painless erasure. Refuse and I will boil the fluid in your spine and force you to watch as I break them."

The temperature in the room plummeted!

It wasn’t Sylvia’s magic. It was the sheer terrifying void of Arthur Sterling’s killing intent.

The calm mocking CEO vanished instantly. The mask dropped!

Arthur’s eyes turned pitch-black. The reality-defying heat of the Primordial Flame ignited deep within his chest. He took a slow deliberate step backward and placed himself directly between the Celestial Emperor and his Queens.

"You want the women?" Arthur’s voice dropped to a demonic vibrating whisper. It

physically cracked the pristine marble walls of the pocket dimension. "You want to touch what belongs to me?"

"They are property," the Emperor stated. He was entirely unbothered by Arthur’s rage. "And I am claiming them."

"CRACK!"

Arthur didn’t even move his arms. His aura simply expanded and violently shattered the holographic projection of the Origin Font.

The two Queens didn’t hesitate!

They tore the grey servant robes from their bodies. They revealed the breathtaking lethal divine armor Arthur had forged for them.

Sylvia’s icy blue aura erupted and instantly neutralized the blinding heat of the room. Morwenna’s dark tattoos flared. Her abyssal energy violently pushed back against the pristine light of the Emperor. Lyra’s daggers materialized in her hands and Aurelia summoned a spear of dark radiance.

"You dare defy me in my own domain?" The Emperor’s voice finally lost its boredom. It was replaced by the thundering wrath of an insulted God. "Guards! Execute the anomaly! Subdue the women!"

The massive doors of the Imperial Box blew open.

Dozens of Imperial Guards poured into the room. Their golden halberds hummed with lethal conceptual commands. They moved with perfect robotic precision as their armor gleamed in the starlight.

They were beautiful.

But Arthur knew the truth. They lacked actual combat experience. They relied on

automated laws and sheer stat advantages. They were pampered security guards

about to fight a cartel of apex predators!

’System,’ Arthur commanded internally. ’Deactivate Fate-Masking Veil.’

[System Notification]

↳ Veil deactivated.

↳ True aura released.

The disguise vanished!

Arthur’s physical form seemed to expand. His dark coat whipped wildly around him

as his true Divine Lord aura slammed into the room.

The sheer density of his existence caused the charging Imperial Guards to physically stumble. Their automated tracking systems completely short-circuited at the sight of a mortal wielding the density of a black hole.

Arthur raised his right hand.

The Ebonheart Cube resting on his shoulder instantly flattened and snapped into his palm. It formed the pitch-black perfectly balanced longsword. The Primordial Flame roared to life along the edge of the blade. It burned with a heat that defied the very concept of physics.

"I was going to wait to level up," Arthur snarled. His lips pulled back in a feral bloodthirsty grin as he stared down the charging guards and the God behind them. "But I think I’ll just kill you all right now."

"SWOOSH!"

Arthur blurred. He entirely bypassed the physical space between him and the first rank of Imperial Guards. He didn’t use a spell. He just swung the Ebonheart Sword in a wide brutal horizontal arc.

"SQUELCH!"

The Primordial Flame effortlessly ignored the conceptual shields of the Celestial armor.

Three elite guards were cleanly bisected at the waist in a single strike. Their golden blood violently sprayed across the pristine white walls.