David leaned heavily against the Sun Door's golden surface, his face ashen and drawn. The mana drain from Vespera's invisibility spell combined with his ongoing power suppression had pushed him far beyond his physical limits. Each breath felt like drowning in reverse, and only the steadying hands of Vespera and Princess Elyssira kept him upright.

"Master," Vespera whispered, her ethereal form flickering with concern. "Your mana is barely holding together."

Princess Elyssira placed her delicate hand beside his on the ornate golden runes. "The chamber beyond..." she paused, tilting her head as if listening to voices only she could hear. "Something feels wrong about it. Very wrong."

The royal bloodline recognition activated immediately. The intricate runes blazed with brilliant solar energy that made the air itself shimmer with heat, and the massive door began to swing open with a deep, resonant hum that seemed to come from the very bones of the earth.

Text blazed across David's vision:

[SYSTEM QUEST COMPLETED] Sun Door successfully opened using Royal Sun Bloodline

Reward: 2x Rank Suppression Elixir Items added to inventory

Without hesitation, David pulled out one elixir and drank it in a single gulp.

The effect was spectacular.

Golden steam began pouring from his body, swirling around him like liquid sunlight made manifest. The transformation wasn't healing, it was reconstruction. His entire magical foundation rebuilt itself before their eyes, power flowing through new channels as his aura underwent fundamental restructuring.

His trembling stopped. Color returned to his face. His eyes regained their sharp, predatory focus.

More than that, David could feel his strength settling at King rank, but with something new, carefully sealed gates leading to Monarch rank. The power was there, vast and waiting, ready to be accessed when he chose. But no longer was it a wild force threatening to tear him apart. Now it was controlled, contained, his.

"Master," Vespera breathed, relief flooding through their bond. "Your aura... it's not just stable. It's perfect."

David flexed his fingers, marveling at the sensation of his power flowing smoothly through unobstructed channels. "Much better," he said, his voice carrying new resonance. "Now let's see what's behind this door."

****

What lay beyond the Sun Door was a violation of reality itself.

The vast chamber stretched impossibly in all directions, its golden walls seeming to curve away into infinite distance. But it was what occupied the center that stopped David's breath entirely.

Six versions of the Sun Empress existed simultaneously in the same space, each one achingly beautiful and terrible in her divine majesty. Her short, wavy black hair bore a striking white streak that caught the fractured light, while golden crimson eyes blazed with power that could forge stars or extinguish them.

The sleek white bodysuit she wore was accented with golden details and black panels that spoke of both regality and warfare, the golden sun crest on her chest pulsing with inner radiance.

Ornate gold pauldrons protected her shoulders, and a flowing red cape bearing the sun's symbol billowed behind her despite the chamber's still air. Gold star earrings caught the light like captured constellations, while a simple golden Amazonian battle headband crowned her with understated authority.

But seeing her fractured across six simultaneous states of being transformed divine beauty into cosmic horror.

One sat regally on her golden throne, frozen mid-gesture as if time itself had stopped around her.

Another was locked in eternal combat with an invisible foe, fists raised and blazing with solar energy that cast no shadows.

A third knelt in what could have been prayer or despair, her divine radiance dimmed to barely a flicker.

A fourth reached desperately toward the door they'd just opened, her face a mask of hope and anguish.

A fifth appeared to be casting some great magic, power crackling around her in patterns that hurt to follow.

A sixth lay collapsed, as if defeated, her golden armor tarnished and cracked.

All of them were real. David could feel it through his enhanced perception, this wasn't trickery. Reality itself had been fractured around the Sun Empress, splitting her existence into simultaneous states of being.

"This reeks of illusion magic," Vespera said, her ethereal form shimmering with unease. "Powerful illusion magic. Something is anchoring these false realities."

Princess Elyssira's voice broke with emotion as she stepped forward. "Aunt Solaria... what have they done to you?"

Aunt? David's strategic composure cracked slightly. He'd assumed they were sisters, the novel had mentioned the heirs to the Sun Throne as siblings, and he'd catalogued three other blessed by the sun according to his previous knowledge.

But Princess Elyssira had rarely been mentioned properly in those accounts, likely because she showed no interest in the throne and her prophetic abilities made her... inconvenient for political narratives.

An aunt-niece relationship changes the succession dynamics entirely, he realized. That explained the system's designation of her as the "Last Seer", if something happened to the Sun Empress, the princess would be far more important to the royal bloodline than a mere sister's claim.

"I've missed this," David murmured, making his decision.

He called upon Nightveil Embrace.

But this time, the artifact's response was different. The shadows that enveloped him weren't merely clothing or armor, they were transformation. David felt himself becoming living darkness given form, an embodiment of shadow that moved with predatory grace. The shadows flowed around him like liquid night, but more disturbing was how they seemed to move independently, suggesting the artifact was more than mere tool.

It was alive. And it was changing him.

David activated his Celestial Wheel skill, his eyes blazing with power as his pupils shifted to white and azure. His perception expanded beyond normal reality, allowing him to see mana flows, dimensional distortions, and,

There.

Suspended above the Sun Empress's grand throne, invisible to normal mortal sight, hung a miniature black sun.

It wasn't corrupted solar energy or twisted light. It was the antithesis of illumination itself, a yawning, infinite hole in reality that devoured photons and hope with an insatiable, all-consuming hunger.