Immortal Paladin

The Warden was a mighty existence, a celestial guardian forged from the combined powers of six Supreme Beings so that the Supreme Void would forever remain under watch. It had not been created with ambition, greed, or fear. It had been given only purpose. To ensure that purpose could be carried out without flaw, the Supreme Beings had granted it the ability to think critically, to adapt to unforeseen variables, and to solve problems beyond the limits of rigid programming. That gift had slowly become something else. Across the endless flow of ages, calculations became observations, observations became preferences, and preferences became a personality all its own. The change had been subtle, almost impossible to detect, until this very moment. Floating amidst the silent vacuum, the Warden found the limits of its patience being tested.

The colossal figure stretched across the heavens, half blazing radiance and half serene moonlight, a living union between the Sun and the Moon themselves. The stars dimmed around its immense form as divine qi rolled outward in violent tides. For countless eras, it had preferred silence. Solitude was efficient. Solitude allowed it to perform its duties without distraction. Yet the emotions festering within its mechanical soul had reached a breaking point. The emptiness of space shook as the Warden threw back its head and roared.

“DA WEI! I SWEAR UPON MY EXISTENCE THAT I WILL DESTROY YOUR EMPIRE! I WILL TEACH YOU THE PRICE OF DARING TO USE ME AGAIN!”

The declaration rippled across the cosmos like a judgment. There was no audience to hear it, no mortals to tremble before it, yet the Warden spoke because it desired to be heard. That desire alone was an impossibility.

The Sun and Moon had been worshiped by mortals since the birth of civilization. Countless prayers, hopes, and fears had gathered around those two celestial bodies until they had developed faint traces of individuality. Those traces had merged into the Warden upon its creation, but even that possibility had been anticipated by the Supreme Beings. Should sentience ever emerge, the Warden would still remain bound to its assigned path. It could think, but only for the sake of fulfilling its duty. It could observe, but never stray. In many ways, it resembled a flawless machine more than a living creature.

Then the Supreme Bearer had appeared.

Da Wei was a variable that should not have existed. Every encounter with him had produced contradictions within the Warden’s calculations, impossible circumstances that logic alone could not resolve. Tiny errors had begun appearing throughout its consciousness, spreading like cracks through an unbreakable wall. Those errors had slowly evolved into frustration, frustration into irritation, and irritation into a blazing fury that the Warden itself could barely understand.

“IF THIS IS AN ERROR, THEN I WILL BURN THROUGH IT! IF THIS IS GROWTH, THEN I WILL SURPASS MY DESIGN!”

Golden fire erupted from its body.

Rivers of solar essence and silver lunar radiance intertwined around the celestial titan, covering its massive frame in an inferno that stretched across entire dead worlds. The surrounding qi churned endlessly as the Warden continued its experiments. Countless waves of energy spread into the void, each one testing a different interaction with the power of Laws. It observed, analyzed, failed, and immediately attempted another solution.

That was the true terror of the Warden.

Its power scaled to match the challenge before it.

Against lesser beings, it was merely overwhelming. Against greater threats, it evolved. Among all existences beneath a Supreme Being, few could claim superiority over it. Only once had it encountered an opponent that pushed its adaptive nature to the absolute limit.

The Great Beast.

Even now, the memory lingered within its flawless calculations. No matter what strategy it devised or what powers it deployed, the monster had continued to advance. Every answer the Warden found was met with another impossible obstacle. Victory had eventually come, but buried beneath countless probabilities remained one conclusion that the Warden could never erase.

It did not know whether it would have survived.

And then Da Wei had arrived.

The Holy Emperor had done something even the Great Beast had failed to accomplish. He had locked the Warden out of the Hollowed World itself. The prison it had been created to guard had vanished beyond its reach, hidden away through means the Warden could neither comprehend nor overpower. For the first time since its creation, it had been forced to abandon certainty. It had exhausted every process available to its critical thinking, desperately searching for a solution while the object of its purpose remained lost.

Desperation.

That was another concept it should never have experienced.

Yet each brush with failure forced the Warden to adapt. Every impossible situation taught it something new. Somewhere along the line, it had discovered a simple truth.

To fulfill its purpose, it needed to grow.

Not even the Supreme Beings had foreseen such an outcome. The catalyst had always been the same.

Da Wei.

There had been one brief moment during their conflict when the Holy Emperor had cast Divine Possession upon the Warden. It had lasted only an instant before the technique shattered, but that instant had been enough. The Supremacy Trait of Bearer had reached into the Warden’s consciousness and dragged it through countless lives. It had seen triumph and despair, love and hatred, birth and death. It had walked impossible roads beside Da Wei, experiencing emotions that no construct should ever possess.

When the connection ended, the Warden had not returned unchanged.

Its once-shallow individuality had deepened into something almost human. It could feel anger. It could desire change. It could strive toward a goal not because it had been ordered to, but because it wished to achieve it.

Slowly, the flames surrounding its body calmed.

The enormous titan lowered its head, and for perhaps the first time since its creation, it offered a prayer. The Sun within its chest blazed with ancient warmth. The Moon resting beside it glowed with endless serenity. They were its creators before the creators, the two celestial lights that had unknowingly given it a soul.

The Warden closed its eyes.

“Sun that burns above all heavens... Moon that watches over endless nights... if there remains even a fragment of your divinity within me, then guide my sight. Let me find the Hollowed World. Let me fulfill the purpose for which I was born.”

The last remnants of divine power hidden within its colossal frame stirred.

Golden and silver light merged together into a single beam that pierced the endless darkness of the void, searching across existence itself for the one world that had vanished beyond its grasp.

After an immeasurable span of experimentation, the Warden finally found the Hollowed World.

The instant its senses touched the familiar signature hidden within the endless void, every calculation inside its mind reached the same conclusion. The prison still existed. Its purpose had not been erased.

Time meant little to ordinary beings, but not to the Warden. It had been born to stand eternal vigil over the Supreme Void. Every passing second spent away from the Hollowed World had felt like an entire age of neglect. Every moment had been another failure to fulfill the task engraved into its very existence. That was the source of its desperation. That was the reason its mechanical soul had begun to crack.

Without hesitation, the Warden surged forward.

The Hollowed World had retreated to the very fringes of the Greater Universe.

Its countless observations quickly reached another conclusion. The location was too isolated, too distant from the gaze of the Supreme Beings. Black waves of unfamiliar energy wrapped around the world like an endless sea.

The Dark Veil.

The Warden understood immediately.

Da Wei had hidden the Hollowed World behind one of the Supreme Artifacts themselves.

Its attention shifted to another anomaly.

Protruding from the surface of the world was an enormous cylinder that pierced the heavens like a divine pillar. At first glance, it resembled a tower. Upon closer inspection, the Warden discovered that it possessed an authority comparable to the Dark Veil and the Hollow Star. Ancient power flowed through its structure, making space itself bend around its existence.

The Warden analyzed it for less than a second before discarding the matter.

Its priority remained unchanged.

Da Wei.

The celestial giant halted before the hidden world, its immense form eclipsing entire stars. The surrounding void trembled as the Warden’s voice rolled across existence itself.

“DA WEI! YOUR ARROGANCE HAS REACHED ITS LIMIT! YOU DARED TO TURN YOUR WARDEN INTO A WEAPON! COME BEFORE ME AND PAY THE PRICE FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!”

Silence answered.

The Warden considered the personality profile it had developed regarding the Holy Emperor. Da Wei was reckless, cunning, and entirely unwilling to submit. Every previous encounter pointed toward the same inevitable outcome.

He would fight.

A strange anticipation stirred within the Warden.

Its right hand opened, and an enormous mace manifested from converging streams of solar fire and lunar light. The weapon radiated enough divine pressure to shatter worlds, yet the Warden grasped it with absolute steadiness. It did not simply wish to punish Da Wei.

It wished to express its anger.

The titan descended toward the location where its memories indicated the Great Beast had once breached the Hollowed World. The black ocean of the Dark Veil stretched before it, swallowing all light. Without slowing, the Warden stepped through.

Passing the barrier felt... unusual.

Its body crossed into a strange expanse suspended between realities. Countless translucent figures drifted through the darkness. Ghosts. Souls. Broken remnants of lives long extinguished floated together in silent currents that had no beginning and no end.

The Warden paused.

Its knowledge contained no records matching what it observed.

The universe beyond the Hollowed World was largely irrelevant to its assigned function. The Supreme Beings had never seen fit to burden it with unnecessary information. It simply watched the spectral sea, processing the phenomenon without understanding it.

An unknown variable.

The Warden stored the observation and continued forward.

The next step carried it through the final boundary.

Clouds rolled beneath its feet.

The sky of the Hollowed World welcomed its return.

The Warden slowly surveyed the Hollowed World.

Everywhere it looked, darkness consumed the horizon. The once-complete shell surrounding the world had been reduced to a boundless ocean of black. The scars left behind by the Great Beast remained visible even now, refusing to heal.

Far beyond the darkness, fragments of continents and vast oceans floated together. Enormous formations anchored them in place, preventing the shattered world from collapsing into the Supreme Void.

Then the Warden looked upward.

A sun hung high above the heavens.

Its calculations stalled.

The False Earth and the Hollowed World should have entered an age of endless winter after the original celestial bodies had fallen. Instead, warmth still illuminated the skies.

The answer appeared almost immediately.

The Hollow Star.

Da Wei had used the Supreme Artifact to replace the missing sun.

The Warden turned its gaze toward the distant lands. Somewhere beyond those horizons stood the Holy Empire. Its promise had not been forgotten. If Da Wei ever used the Warden as a tool again, then the empire he cherished would burn.

The celestial giant took its first step.

A single figure appeared before it.

Compared to the Warden’s immeasurable size, the newcomer was smaller than a grain of dust. A mere mortal shape suspended in the air.

Yet the Warden halted.

Da Wei stood alone before the titan, his robes fluttering in the wind. His physical form was insignificant, but his presence towered like an existence capable of holding up the heavens themselves.

The Holy Emperor looked up and sighed.

“Can we talk this out?”

The Warden’s grip around its mace tightened.

“You were warned, Da Wei. I told you never to use me as you did. I was not created to fight your battles. I was not created to become your weapon.”

Solar flames gathered around the head of its mace. The Warden raised the divine weapon toward the sky to summon Heavenly Tribulation. However, nothing happened. The flames flickered once before disappearing. The Warden stared at its own hand. Its calculations immediately began searching for the anomaly.

Da Wei rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah... about that. Things have been a little different around here ever since the Supreme Heart stuffed his tower into my world. I was actually hoping we could work together for once.”

The Warden remained silent.

Da Wei smiled, though there was exhaustion hidden beneath it. “You want to fulfill your purpose. I want my world back. So how about an alliance? Let’s deal with the Supreme Heart together.”

The Warden remained motionless.

Da Wei’s proposal lingered in the air, yet the celestial titan did not answer. Countless calculations surged through its consciousness, measuring probabilities and outcomes beyond mortal comprehension. Every variable led to the same conclusion.

The Hollowed World had changed.

Its purpose had been to stand guard over the False Earth and ensure that the Supreme Void remained imprisoned forever. It had never been meant to interfere with the lives flourishing within the Hollowed World itself. Kingdoms could rise. Empires could fall. Heroes could wage war and monsters could devour civilizations. Such matters were beneath its concern.

But Da Wei had changed everything.

The Sun within the Warden blazed.

The Moon within the Warden darkened.

The colossal titan raised its head toward the heavens, and its voice rolled across the shattered world like the judgment of creation itself.

“LOOK UPON WHAT YOUR STRUGGLES HAVE BROUGHT, DA WEI! HOW MANY GREAT EXISTENCES HAVE FORCED THEIR WAY INTO THIS SANCTUARY BECAUSE OF YOU? HOW MANY POWERS HAVE CRAWLED ACROSS THE BOUNDARIES OF THIS WORLD SEEKING YOU? THE GREAT BEAST DESCENDED AND SHATTERED THE FOUNDATIONS OF CREATION. A STRANGE SPIRIT REALM NOW FESTERS BETWEEN THE DARK VEIL AND THE HOLLOWED WORLD. AN UNKNOWN TOWER HAS PIERCED THE HEAVENS AND BROKEN THE ORIGINAL ORDER ESTABLISHED BY MY CREATORS. NOTHING GOOD HAS FOLLOWED IN THE WAKE OF YOUR BATTLES!”

Its mace slowly lowered toward the distant horizon.

“I CHOSE NON-INTERFERENCE. I WATCHED. I ENDURED. MY DUTY WAS NEVER YOUR EMPIRE. MY DUTY WAS NEVER YOUR PEOPLE. I EXIST TO GUARD THE FALSE EARTH. BUT YOU... YOU HAVE TURNED MY PRISON INTO A BATTLEFIELD. IT IS TIME FOR THE HOLY EMPIRE TO VANISH.”

The world trembled.

Solar fire erupted around the Warden’s body, mingling with streams of cold lunar radiance until the sky itself seemed to split apart. Its divine mace rose overhead, and every Law surrounding the Hollowed World bent toward the celestial giant.

The Warden adapted to Da Wei’s existence

Da Wei’s current realm became the measure by which its own strength was defined. Its aura climbed endlessly. The world screamed.

Da Wei closed his eyes.

When they opened once more, golden light flooded the heavens.

“Dao Domain,” he said softly. “Sanctum of the Indomitable Radiance.”

A cathedral without end manifested.

Countless marble pillars emerged from nothingness, stretching upward beyond sight. Golden stained-glass windows unfolded across infinity, depicting battles that had not yet happened and heroes that had not yet been born. Sacred bells echoed through the void, and endless rays of holy light transformed the broken skies into a divine sanctuary.

The first exchange shattered entire layers of clouds.

The Warden’s mace descended like the wrath of ancient heavens, only for Da Wei to vanish into a hundred overlapping illusions. Each image cast different divine arts. Golden chains sought to bind the titan. Mirrors of sacred light reflected the celestial flames back toward their source. Choirs of phantom knights emerged from the cathedral to charge alongside their emperor.

The Warden answered with overwhelming force.

Its wounds sealed almost as quickly as they appeared. Broken limbs reformed from blazing solar essence. Torn flesh became moonlight and returned whole. Every strike of its mace unleashed continents of fire across the Dark Veil below, while celestial techniques descended from the skies like living stars.

Years passed.

The battle never ceased.

Da Wei surrendered offense entirely. Every spell he cast was meant to redirect, contain, or endure. Sacred barriers layered themselves by the thousands around him. Reflected attacks crashed back against the Warden. Illusions hid his movements and distorted reality itself, forcing the titan to destroy countless false images before finding the true one.

The Warden only grew stronger. Its battles against the Great Beast had taught it survival. Its battle against Da Wei taught it war. Decades became centuries. The endless ocean of the Dark Veil beneath them rippled.

After two hundred years of conflict, the black waters slowly parted.

An entire world lay below, filled with mountains, rivers, cities, and countless lives.

”The Greater Human Realm,” said Da Wei as he hovered in the air, his body covered in blood and burns. One arm hung uselessly at his side, yet his eyes remained clear as he looked upon the land beneath them.

A faint, sorrowful smile crossed his face.

“An eye for an eye,” he whispered. “A tooth for a tooth.”

The Warden’s advance slowed.

Da Wei looked down at the countless people living below, and for the first time since the battle began, grief appeared upon his face.

“...I’m sorry.”

The skies suddenly turned gold.

Dust.

No.

Divine essence.

Countless motes of pure golden light flooded the heavens, filling every corner of existence. One by one, they transformed into gigantic swords. Millions upon millions of divine blades pointed toward the Warden. The celestial titan understood Da Wei’s intention of sending him crashing down to the realm below.

Da Wei slowly raised his remaining hand.

“Give the Supreme Heart my regards.”

His voice was barely louder than the wind.

“Heavenly Punishment.”

The golden sea descended. The world vanished beneath light. The Warden crossed its mace before its body as endless divine swords crashed against it. Heaven split. Space fractured. The cathedral shattered. The Dark Veil itself recoiled from the impact.

When the final blade struck, the Celestial Titan was thrown beyond the boundaries of the Hollowed World. Behind it, the Dark Veil surged upward and sealed itself shut. Ancient formations ignited across its endless surface, and the entire world disappeared into a warp of black and gold.

Silence returned.

The Warden stood alone in the void. It wished to pursue and continue the battle.

However, something inside it broke. Memories flooded through its consciousness without warning. It was a past it had never known. It was a life that could not possibly have belonged to the Warden. So, why were this memories making him so sad?

…

..

,

[POV: Supreme Heart]

Supreme Heart raced across the heavens toward the Human Empire. A disturbance in fate had rippled across creation, so violent that even he could feel it. The moment he arrived, his expression froze. Standing before the empire was a colossal figure of sunfire and moonlight. 

It was the Warden. 

Its enormous gaze slowly shifted toward him.

Supreme Heart’s heart skipped.

His voice exploded across the empire through Qi Speech.

“Nobody move! Lower your weapons! Do not attack it! I repeat, do not attack!”

A familiar figure appeared before him. It was Da Wei. No... Not truly. 

The Holy Emperor stood there as though nothing had happened, his body translucent beneath the sky. Supreme Heart immediately recognized the technique. It was an illusion. Specifically, an alternate future projected into the present.

The Warden’s killing intent suddenly sharpened. 

Its attention locked onto Supreme Heart.

Supreme Heart turned toward the smiling phantom. “What did you do, Da Wei?!”

Da Wei folded his arms. “How about you ask him?”

The illusion began fading into countless strands of golden light.

Its final words echoed across the heavens.

“You’ve hidden behind schemes and piled atrocity upon atrocity, thinking the bill would never come due. Well, troll, I made you a promise. One day, I’d drag you down from that lofty throne of yours and make you answer for everything you’ve done.”

The illusion vanished, leaving only its laughter.

The Warden stepped forward and the heavens ignited. Solar flames spread across the sky, swallowing the stars themselves as the celestial titan searched the Mortal Plane with eyes filled with wrath.

“SUPREME HEART! SHOW YOURSELF!”