Lowly Ascent

"Damn it! Why are there so many Marble Giants?! Shouldn't they have corroded after all this time!"

Chambers fought a group of massive statues reminiscent of burly men with furnaces for bodies. Their bodies were made of a black marble found in dark spaces, it was similar to obsidian, being condensed from heat.

Fire spewed from the openings in the furnaces as the Time Lord's hourglasses reversed the river of magma back on the Marble Sentries.

Although many of the basic giants were no more than dust, the special ones like these Furnace Giants were still around, but the spirits that used to live in them either wriggled themselves out of their prison or were taken elsewhere.

Without a master to actively help the Marble Giants, they couldn't stop the Spirits from escaping, after all, the Marble Giants didn't have souls. They were now constructs with only physical strength to their name. 

The Giants were easily taken care of after Chambers released the power of time, accelerating the degradation of the giants, and turning them the dust below his feet.

"Finally, this should be the last floor! Core, here I come!"

Opening the door, Chambers entered a massive room similar to his workshop. Many cultivators liked giant workshops with multiple areas.

In one corner, there were piles of white ivory, in another, unfinished marble giants.

"This....is this Ivory from a Heavenly Lightning Boar? And this, the Tusks of a Bone Demon? Ha! Ivory from a ten-thousand-year-old Void Elk! These things have been extinct for generations!"

Each piece of Ivory came from an impressive origin. Chambers took ten minutes looking at everything before hurrying to the door.

'I don't have time to take everything in, I must get the core before everything goes to shit! I already saw that soon the Seven Provinces will be obliterated, if everything is still fine then whatever destroys this place is coming still! Huh?'

On the door, lines of text appeared, glowing red.

It read:

"Stop! Do not go further, if you are reading this then I must have been killed. The only explanation could be my Master, only he is powerful enough to get past my defenses and kill me even with the core he implanted in me!

"If you know who I am and know that this place belongs to me, don't go beyond this door, it's what he wants! This was all so I could help him and his sick desire to return to some golden age he talks about, where Immortality still existed. Don't believe him, he's a monster who's existed for eons! Always becoming the Sect Leader!"

Chambers's jaw dropped, "What!? Guan De killed his disciple? The Architect had the core the whole time?! Wait a minute, Guan De has always been the sect leader?! He was Bai Sheng, Jia Lang, even the Great Ye Qiu?!"

There were still more letters on the wall, Chambers continued to read.

"Beyond the door is the core, you must not enter, don't let my Master get the chance to realize his dream, it will cost too many innocent lives! This entire time he's been using others to progress different Dao's and then taking the fruits of their labor, feeding it to the core! After he implanted the core in me, he's stopped he'll surely do it again if his hands get on the core!"

The letters went on to plead and gave more explanation but Chambers was already bored, he was not moved in the slightest.

'So what if people die? The Core's mine! I'll leave this place anyway, who cares if bad things happen? I've never considered myself a child of this world!'

He went on to push the door, protecting himself from the traps left on it.

In truth, what the Architect believed was wrong. The Living Immortal didn't need the core or seeds. Ever since he fed his disciple's seed of creation to the core, he left it to its own devices after the birth of the heavenly spirit. He had no plans to become a Ruler or interfere, only making sure the Dao could resurrect fully.

With the Heavenly Spirit, absorption of different Dao's was happening every second, the Living Immortal didn't need to collect seeds when the Will of heaven was in every cultivator to do it for him!

The only reason the Living Immortal used the Architect as a host for the core was he did a divination that told him to.

Her body was the perfect specimen for the birth of a heavenly spirit, using her soul, and the seed of creation to raise the bar of the core so heaven could exist. The result was the birth of the Heavenly Spirit, which was to become the Heavenly Dao!

All this time, the Architect lived but in a different form, without memories of what her master did to her, or any memories. Her soul was only a material for the best resonance for the spirit and the core.

...

Cain passed floor after floor, following a trail of rocks and dust.

'It seems the guards long perished, it should be smooth sailing, I must get the core!'

...

On the other side of the door, Chambers found a blue-lit room, there was a walkway to a platform surrounded by a Spiritual vein, the light reflecting on the marble ceiling and dyeing light blue everywhere.

In the center of a platform, a man sat in a lotus position. They wore Ivory armor, plates overlapping in a petal-like fashion. A helmet covered his entire face and a floating crown of ivory was slightly above it. 

"So....she really did make a husband for herself. Does it have the core?"

The Ivory King opened his eyes, white glowing through its shadowy visor. In its chest, a light burned and sent out energy waves, growing stronger by the second.

"Hehe, although I played around with the Puppet Dao, this is a level of mastery no one can replicate. Bravo!" The Time Lord clapped his hands, he was finally entertained.

...

Cain's eyes widened, "The Core! I can feel its fluctuations!"

His state changed, becoming ethereal like a ghost, his speed increasing hundreds of times more than before.

Outside the control tower, a sage whose face was blocked by sunny rays opened his eyes.

"So she had plans to leave the core with that Puppet? But I don't sense the Heavenly Spirit, what's going on?"

...

"Just what is this absurd power!"

Chambers was pushed back, and one of his hourglasses cracked before collapsing to golden sand.

"A thousand years of lifespan, gone like that! Bastard!"

White waves roamed around the Ivory King while he pointed his white rapier toward Chambers. Heavenly energy layered around its tip, but unlike the Heavenly energy Fang Yuan could command, this energy was thousands of times purer.

"Shit!"

Chambers tried to block as the emotionless puppet attacked, but his defenses were like a bubble that popped instantly. Two more hourglasses broke while his body rapidly regressed to its peak state, his lost flesh restoring itself.

"Is it because it has the core? How can it counter me this well?! I don't have enough time gathered for my killer move! Do I have to retreat?!"

Chambers suddenly felt his instincts nudge him, he stepped to the side as a mass flew past him and collided with the Ivory Puppet, the ceiling reflected red.

"Core!" Cain smashed into the puppet, pieces of ivory flying about. Like a vicious animal, he clawed with greed.

Long knowing Cain was coming for it, the Ivory Puppet prepared to lose some armor, in the process it ran its rapier through Cain, but alas, the attacker was made of mist.

Heavenly energy rampaged but the mist suppressed it. Heaven was the Dao and Dao was Heaven, with the Dao incomplete the Heavenly energy too was weaker than at full strength.

Against the hardened Evil Spirit that was cursed by an Entity far stronger than even some Immortals, the heavenly energy could only get pushed back as Cain ripped more chunks off of it, fighting tooth and nail to protect its lover's last wish.

Chambers watched, his heart softening, 'Since I have a break, now thinking about it, this puppet is pretty pitiful. Created to love, subjected to loneliness. If it was alive I imagine it would would be quite the sad hero. Unfortunately, it looks like a failed product, never gaining a soul...'

Bloodthirsty warcries resounded as Cain was pushed off. The puppet suppressed Chambers but Cain suppressed the puppet, leading to a standstill, the Timelord acting.

"Do you think I'm invisible!" Hourglasses entered a formation as the green light turned yellow and waves of overflowing sand generated from the light, sweeping towards Cain.

"What?! It's you! You liar!" Absorbed in getting the core, Cain only made note there was another person present, he would have never thought it was the Timelord who almost killed him. Anger flared thinking about the close call he had with time.

Pushed back, Cain retreated to nullify the sand while Chambers stood where he was.

Standing up and returning to the center of the room, the Ivory King recovered, the pieces it lost flying back and reconstructing its armor.

The three entered a standstill.