Chapter 83: Toll-Bridge

Chapter 83: Toll-Bridge

The transition from the diamond summit to the true border of the Sovereign’s inner sanctum was not a passage of distance, but of worth. As Ren Hanshin crossed the ruins of the Arch-Banker’s desk, the atmosphere shifted from the heavy pressure of the Golden Fog into a state of crystalline vacuum. Ahead of him lay the Toll-Bridge of Aureum, a structure that defied the physics of the previous realms. It was a span of woven sunlight and solidified greed, miles long, arching over a bottomless abyss filled with the discarded, grey shadows of those who had failed to pay their way.

Ren’s porcelain skin was no longer pristine. The grey fissures of the Midas-Infection had stabilized into a dull, leaden sleeve on his left arm, while his right side hummed with the Weaver’s crimson starlight. He was a living paradox — a hybrid of divine silk and human dross, standing at the precipice of the final trade.

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