Monarch's Sacrifice, The Necklace's Final Piece

Hades's fingers loosened around the bone scepter. It fell to the ground with a crisp clatter.

The Lord of Bone Prison did not hesitate in the slightest.

He raised his right hand, now nothing but bare bones, and drove it fiercely into his hollow chest cavity.

Crack!

Bones shattered.

Hades's hand churned within his chest before he wrenched it back out.

He forcibly tore out an irregular crystal that emitted an icy, ghostly blue glow, its surface covered in cracks.

That was his vital point—the Abyss Source Core Fragment.

Without the core, Hades's once-solid skeleton instantly dimmed.

The Soul Fire in his eye sockets shrank to the size of beans, and his body swayed as though it might collapse at any moment.

He cradled the core in both hands, shuffled forward on his knees for two steps, and raised it above his head.

"Master, this is yours."

Lin Mu sat upon the Throne of Withered Bones, propping up his chin with one hand while lightly curling the fingers of the other.

The ghostly blue crystal left Hades's palms and flew toward Lin Mu's chest.

Ripples spread across the surface of the black crystal armor.

A suction force arose from the hollow in his chest and swallowed the crystal.

Buzz.

The first pair of crystal wings behind the armor lit up, and a trace of ghostly blue patterns appeared upon the originally pitch-black plates.

The sense of sluggishness caused by the lack of a core lessened slightly.

Lin Mu looked toward the remaining monarchs.

Vine Queen Velaya bit through her lip, green blood trailing down from the corner of her mouth.

She glanced at Hades on the ground, then at Lin Mu's utterly emotionless mask.

Countless vines burst from her body, tangling and tearing apart at her chest.

A verdant core,