The darkness spewed from the black box seemed to have been infected and guided by this light as well, its nature undergoing a subtle change.
It voluntarily merged into the thirteen-colored radiance, becoming the profound backdrop that bore those brilliant hues—like fertile soil, or the base color of a canvas.
The light traveled along the Divine Sword like vines of light growing against the current, upward, upward, and ever upward, stubbornly flowing toward the Iron Tomb's true body that had pierced the Sky Curtain, toward that vast and cold mechanical will.
Yet when this light, containing all of Amphoreus's "existence," truly touched the Iron Tomb, an unexpected mutation occurred.
The Iron Tomb's body, formed from the Black Tide of countless eras and the deepest hatred of living beings, resonated at an eerie frequency with the thirteen-colored light Yan Huan carried within him.
They were like two extreme branches that had split from the same colossal tree. One had headed toward the end of darkness, while the other remembered every step of the journey. Yet now, because of a shared "root," they were forced to face one another.
"...Huh?!"
Yan Huan abruptly felt that the Divine Sword piercing his chest had fundamentally changed in nature!
Amphoreus's awakened "heart," using Yan Huan as its special conduit, began drawing back the Iron Tomb's incomparably vast energy!
His body began to groan under the unbearable burden.
Across his skin, his veins bulged, spread, and glowed as though they had been filled with lava and starlight. Their colors shifted madly and rapidly between the Iron Tomb's dark red and Amphoreus's thirteen hues, like an abstract painting spiraling out of control.
Every bone in his body let out an ear-piercing creak, as though it would be crushed by the raging flood of incoming energy in the