The victory over the Ashen Lotus Realm had not just shattered karmic chains—it had shaken something far older.
Tianming stood at the highest balcony of his Resonant Palace, the ash-swept winds of a newly liberated realm whispering through the world-song that now pulsed across the landscape. The Echoing Choir meditated below, recovering their energy, their souls still vibrating with remnants of the great chorus that had unseated an entire plane of silence.
But amidst the new silence, a new resonance stirred.
It came as a faint whisper, a note so ancient that it carried the weight of forgotten millennia.
> "O bearer of the Divine Staff, heir of tonal dominion... can you hear me still?"
Tianming's breath caught.
He turned to Aria and Nihila, who were already reacting—Aria gripping her harp with eyes wide, Nihila's void veil flickering with instability. Both had felt it. A frequency that was not theirs, yet somehow… older than either of them.
"It's coming from beyond the Ashen border," Aria whispered. "From where Sha Tianxuan sealed the Starvault Sanctum."
Nihila said nothing, but she stepped to Tianming's side, her presence cold, anchoring.
Without another word, he summoned the Sovereign Chariot and rode into the sky, breaking through the karmic mists. The gate to the Starvault Sanctum revealed itself—not a door, but a sealed music score, carved into stone and suspended in the void.
Each note was a barrier. Each silence was a lock.
Tianming raised his hand, fingers glowing with Sovereign Resonance.
> "I claim the right of harmony. Open the vault of the first voice."
The musical stone cracked. The void sang.
And from within it emerged a voice unlike any other.
---
She floated into existence, wrapped in starlight threads that sang of past empires and undone symphonies. Her hair fell like a silver comet, her eyes twin galaxies of unfathomable age.
She wore no crown, yet her presence outshone divine regalia.
Her name struck the air like a melody that refused to die.
> "I am Liora, Cantor of Aeon Stars, Sovereign Muse of the Harmonious Epoch."
The very Realm of Sound bent to her breath.
Even Aria, radiant and confident, hesitated as she stepped forward.
"You're the origin… the first to sing the Celestial Canticle."
Liora's gaze moved to Tianming, and the cosmic weave of her presence shifted subtly, recognizing something deep within him.
"No. I was the first to lose it."
She stepped close, her hand brushing Tianming's chest where his Resonant Core pulsed.
"But you… are the first to bring it back."
---
Liora, Song Queen of the Harmonious Stars
Divine Title: Cantor of Aeon Stars
Domain: Starvault Sanctum
Legacy Technique: Eternal Refrain of Heaven's Pulse
Cultivation Path: Celestial Echo Dao – where music itself bends space, time, and memory
Personality: Noble, ancient, melancholic; her every word resonates truth, her every silence commands respect
---
Liora's return ignited an instant reaction.
The Starvault Sanctum bloomed—unfolding like a flower from voided time. Cities of silver strings and crystalline amphitheaters emerged from their prison of karmic chains. Divine musicians, long sealed in stillness, gasped and awakened. The Harmonious Epoch—once the cultural superpower of the multiverse—was reborn under Tianming's banner.
But it came with cost.
The resonance field now housed three divine harmonies—Aria's rebellious joy, Nihila's solemn stillness, and now Liora's celestial grandeur.
They clashed.
In the throne hall, the very air turned into a battlefield of sound.
"I will guide him," Aria said boldly. "With freedom and rhythm."
"No," Liora replied. "He needs structure. He is the next Aeonic Sovereign."
Between them, Nihila stood like the eye of a soundless storm.
"You are both wrong. He needs to be unshaped. To shed his self, not define it."
Tianming raised his hands, the resonance in his soul spinning into overdrive.
"You are all correct—and all incomplete."
He stepped forward, and for the first time since ascending the Divine Seat, the palace itself bowed.
> "I will not be shaped by harmony. Harmony will be shaped by me."
At his decree, the System Interface shifted. A new feature unlocked:
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📜 [Divine Harmonization System Unlocked]
You may now:
Combine the musical techniques of divine harem members
Compose Empire-Wide Battle Anthems that rewrite local Dao laws
Access the Celestial Refrain Codex (Legacy of Queen Liora)
---
As Tianming took Liora's hand—her fingers like stars wrapped in warmth—she smiled for the first time in countless eons.
"Then come, Sovereign. Let us write a song that folds galaxies."
---
With the Queen of Song now at his side, and the Starvault Sanctum rising, the Supreme Dominion Empire has claimed more than another realm.
It has claimed the forgotten future of the multiverse.
The Age of Resonance has truly begun.