The next second, Liu Zhipeng moved. Ignoring Trazyn and the trap behind him powerful enough to warp dimensions, he extended his golden hand, formed from pure C'tan energy, and gently, tenderly touched the shard burning with pale flames atop the first Obelisk.
"No-!" Trazyn screamed instinctively. It was not a warning, but the reflexive howl of a collector watching a brat about to snap a limited-edition figurine.
The instant Liu Zhipeng's fingers touched the shard, a will steeped in deception and lies surged madly into his soul, trying to drag him into an endless cycle of illusions. But to Liu Zhipeng, this little trick did not even qualify as an appetizer.
[Primordial Quickening] let out a cheerful, satisfied "burp" deep within his soul. The dormant embryo gave a sudden throb, and an irresistible devouring force erupted! The Deceiver's will within the pale flames did not even have time to scream. Like light caught in a black hole, it was instantly torn apart and broken down into a torrent of the purest energy, which Liu Zhipeng swallowed whole.
Almost at that same moment, Imotekh the Stormlord's cold electronic eyes snapped open atop the Throne.
"Activate the trap." His deep, icy voice echoed through the magnificent Throne Room, devoid of emotion.
Inside the Energy Chamber, the entire space shuddered violently!
Crack-crack-crack-
It was as though an invisible giant hand were folding an enormous sheet of paper. The edges of space began contracting inward. The walls, floor, ceiling-everything twisted and warped. Countless dimensional rifts shimmering with strange colors appeared out of thin air, slicing the entire chamber into irregular geometric shapes. Light refracted at bizarre angles. Time accelerated in some areas and ground to a halt in others.
The multidimensional Tesseract Labyrinth, the ultimate trap capable of imprisoning gods, had finally closed its