The summit of Mount Firmament.
Wind and snow lashed the peak year-round, and because the mountain itself had been carved into the shape of a dragon, standing at the top was like standing on the skull of a colossal crimson beast. The whole of Mount Firmament stretched out below, laid bare.
This was where Sentinel Jué had first descended, long ago.
And where Jinhsi had been brought back to life.
The locals called it Loong's Crest.
"Arbiter, Jinhsi. Before you lies the entrance to my Sonoro Sphere, a world I forged with my temporal power. It is the ideal battlefield for the three of us. As for the key to open it..."
"That would be my clearance. Right?"
Rover studied the Reality Marble the Sentinel had constructed and smiled to himself. So this is where you fight Jué. The weekly boss domain.
In truth, it was the wellspring of the Sentinel's power and the only arena that could contain what was about to happen. Anywhere else, a Sentinel, her Resonator, and a Rover clashing at full force would have leveled Mount Firmament to rubble.
"Once you step inside, there is no turning back."
"We know. We're ready." The words came from both Rover and Jinhsi without a trace of hesitation.
"If I may be so bold," Changli said, inclining her head, "I would serve as witness for all three of you."
This battle over the Temporal Mandate was not hers to fight. But she was here, and even if all she could do was watch, she intended to see it through.
"It'll be dangerous."
The aftershocks alone would be enough to annihilate anything nearby. Bearing witness would be no small feat.
Changli only smiled, serene and fearless. To watch a Rover, a Sentinel, and the Sentinel's Resonator collide in a battle of Resonance... she'd consider that worth the price of admission even if it killed her.
"Every beautiful woman in this world is more stubborn than the last," Rover said with a helpless laugh. "Fine. Let's go."
All three stepped into the Sonoro Sphere.
The world transformed in an instant.
Eternal twilight. A vast, strange space covered in shallow water, where a red-gold sun hung frozen in the act of sinking beneath the surface, never quite vanishing. Lotus blossoms dotted the water in every direction, and towering stone idols carved with ancient symbols rose from the depths around them.
It looked like the last light of a Civilization's dying sun.
Jué's dragon form coiled through the air above, radiating an authority beyond mortal comprehension.
"Arbiter, forgive my presumption! Let this strike serve as our opening!"
She soared with a majesty that defied description. Her jaws parted wide, and golden lightning gathered between her fangs, building and building until the air itself screamed. She was a dragon. Of course she could breathe thunder.
The roar that followed shook the foundations of the Sphere.
Rover and Jinhsi accelerated with the Temporal Mandate without a heartbeat's delay, narrowly evading a blast that would have killed them where they stood. Jinhsi stared at the devastation it carved through the space behind them, a strike powerful enough to punch clean through Jinzhou's defenses.
Before she could process the shock, Jué was already twisting through the air, her massive body rolling with serpentine grace as her tail whipped toward them both.
A single blow that could have obliterated an Overlord Class Tacet Discord.
Golden lightning and temporal energy sheathed the tail like a continent-spanning lash, crashing down with force enough to split the world.
And Rover met it head-on.
"Bring it!"
The Temporal Mandate wrapped around the Emerald of Genesis in his grip. Both hands locked on the hilt, blade raised before him, he planted his feet and refused to give an inch.
The impact shook the earth itself.
Jinhsi, Jué, and Changli all stared. The dark-haired, golden-eyed Rover had stopped the Sentinel's committed strike with nothing but three feet of ice-forged steel. The raw strength that demanded was staggering.
"Arbiter... you have grown this far already."
"Warm-up's over." He grinned. "My turn."
One step forward, and he vanished through a spatial rift, disappearing from Jué's sight entirely. A fraction of a second later, she felt something land on her head. Then came his voice.
"Echo, resonate!"
He'd teleported onto Jué's skull, the Temporal Mandate condensing into his right fist. Without ceremony, he drove it downward with everything he had into the "ground" beneath his feet.
The detonation of temporal energy was terrifying. But more terrifying still was the sheer physical force behind the punch itself. Jué felt as though a meteor had slammed into her skull.
"Ngh! Arbiter, your strength exceeds all expectation!"
Shock rippled through the Sentinel. The power of a Sentinel was immense from birth, but that ceiling was fixed. Growth beyond it was all but impossible. The Arbiters, though, were different entirely.
They weren't born with overwhelming strength. But as Vessels of Sound, their potential for growth was limitless. Even so...
It's been mere days since he awakened. How has he reached this level already?!
The pace of his growth defied reason.
Then, seizing the opening Rover had created:
"Celestial Court's Radiance!"
A spectral dragon of blue-green light materialized behind Jinhsi, and she unleashed its breath at the Sentinel in a torrent of concentrated power.
As the Sentinel's Resonator, Jinhsi possessed strength far beyond any ordinary Resonator. But her power was derived from Jué's, and it fell catastrophically short of the source.
"The Arbiter's strength is sufficient to face me directly. But you, Jinhsi... you are nowhere near enough!" Jué's voice boomed across the Sphere. "If you don't want to be ground to dust by my time flow, then surpass your limits! At your current level, forget hurting me. The shockwaves from my battle with the Arbiter alone will kill you. And if that happens, Triple Resonance is nothing but a dream."
"I understand!"
Jinhsi gritted her teeth and held her ground. The ancient dragon before her was the being her people worshipped as a god. A single casual roar was enough to knock her off balance. But today, she would raise her blade against that god.
Rover glanced toward her, then launched back into his assault. The Temporal Mandate and Spatial Power layered together, and even Jué marveled. She could barely track his movements.
Her response was as elegant as it was brutal.
"Worthy of an Arbiter. But... still."
A single draconic syllable resonated through the Sphere.
The world went grey.
Time stopped. Every particle, every ripple across the water, every mote of light froze in absolute stillness. Jué had overwritten the entire domain with her own Temporal Mandate, locking both of them in place. Then golden lightning began to fall like rain, each bolt carrying enough destructive force to obliterate everything it touched.
But...
Time alter... restriction released!
Gold blazed in Rover's eyes, twin flames that refused to be extinguished. Every limiter shattered. He unleashed the full depth of his temporal power, holding nothing back, accelerating not only himself but the fabric of space around him.
"Time's shackles, fall!"
In that frozen second that should not have existed, he tore his own color back from the grey world, and his blade became a streak of light that scattered the golden thunder like rain blown apart by wind.