My Charity System made me too OP
Chapter 367 - 367: Spiral Crown IV

A figure emerged from a pillar of pulsing static.

It was Leon.

But older. Hardened. His armor engraved with battle-marks, and Echofang was larger—twice as thick, humming with Resonance beyond Tier IX.

This was an Echo Shade—a projection of what he could become. Or fail to become.

They clashed instantly.

Blade vs blade.

Shell Pulse vs Shell Pulse.

Reverb Chain vs Absolute Loop.

Origin Flow vs Karmic Rift.

The Shade didn't speak. It didn't need to.

Leon could feel his own thoughts inside its moves.

Each strike tested his resolve, his tempo control, and his future rhythm.

At 40% health, Leon was forced to activate:

Shell Reverb Form: Titan Loop Drive – A sustained pulse mode where each echo move strengthens the next.

He struck five times.

The sixth came automatically, echoing across time.

The Shade tried to block.

But that sixth strike hit from the next second—a future it couldn't reach.

The Shade vanished, nodding slightly as it dissolved.

[PHASE THREE CLEAR – TIME: 04:09]

The clouds parted.

A throne descended, borne by living lightning serpents.

Seated on it was the last trial:

AEZRAEL, THE STORMBEARER ECHO

Clad in divine thundersteel, half-mortal, half-tempo ghost.

He was the first to command echoes as living extensions of his mind.

And now, he stood against Leon.

"You've climbed far," Aezrael said, voice like crashing waves. "Show me if you're worthy to rewrite the rhythm of the skies."

Aezrael moved like a blade of pressure and insight—each step a beat, each strike a chapter.

Leon didn't hold back.

He activated Karmic Loop + Absolute Return

Chained it with Shell Pulse: Origin Collapse

Integrated his Wyrmlord Volt Core—causing his echoes to delay-surge and hit unpredictably.

Aezrael adapted fast.

He began stealing Leon's echo frames, using them against him.

So Leon went further.

He activated the Echo Heart Core—causing the battlefield to ripple with recorded frames of every battle he had ever fought.

"I'm not here to repeat my past," he said.

"I'm here to forge a new tempo."

With that, he performed a strike he had never used before.

Not practiced. Not learned.

Just pure instinct.

"Shell Pulse: Fifth Form – FRACTURE REQUIEM!"

A singularity bloomed from his blade.

It swallowed Aezrael's echoes, overloaded the tempo layer—and for one second, the entire arena went silent.

Then shattered like glass.

Leon stood alone as the clouds parted.

Light descended.

A new forge formed around him.

"Forge your blade, Rhythm Sovereign," a voice echoed.

And he knew—his next step wasn't a battle.

It was creation.

The forge wasn't made of metal.

It was built from rhythm itself.

Spirals of silver clouds swirled around him, and floating crystalline anvils pulsed in harmony with his heartbeat. Every echo he had left in battle—the strikes, the steps, the pulses—reverberated in this place.

A voice—calm, ancient, resonant—spoke.

"You are Rhythm Sovereign. The forge bends to your tempo. Shape your blade with your truth."

Leon stepped forward.

He raised Echofang, now cracked at the edges, humming with a million battle-memories.

With his left hand, he placed:

Wyrmlord Volt Core – Storm resonance and echo delay.

Reverb Titan Shellbone – Pulse memory amplification.

Echo Heart Core Fragment – Temporal anchoring and sync layering.

Then, with his right hand, he reached into the forge and drew out a pulsing orb of Fracture Requiem Essence—what remained after his final strike against Aezrael.

[Forging Sequence Initiated…]

Leon didn't hammer.

He conducted.

Each motion summoned an echo of his past strikes.

Each swing, every defense, every breakthrough—replicated here as phantom afterimages—layered into the blade.

He infused:

Tripart Echo's triple-frame sync

Absolute Return's temporal rebound

Karmic Loop's cause-effect inversion

Echo of Origin's tempo memory

Fracture Requiem's reality-breaking resonance

The forge began spinning faster. The blade glowed brighter.

Then—he struck it once, not with force, but with clarity.

Time stilled.

And the blade shattered—

—only to reform, smoother, deadlier, more elegant.

[ECHOFANG – FINAL FORM: TEMPOFANG, THE ASCENDANT SHELLBLADE]

Base Type: Echo Pulse Blade

Class: Mythic

Passive: Records and amplifies battle tempo. Learns with user.

Core Ability: Requiem Linkage – When the user strikes at exact rhythm, the blade releases stored echoes as a synchronized cascade.

Final Skill: Fracture Requiem – Bend echo, time, and damage into a one-frame critical overload.

Leon held the new weapon. It felt weightless, but when he moved—it hummed with a layered resonance like a symphony trapped inside a sword.

He closed his eyes.

"I'm ready."

The stormbridge opened again, descending from the sky-forge back to Thunderborne Arena.

At the bottom, his team was waiting.

Milim blinked. "You're glowing."

Roman smirked. "Told you he'd beat a thunder god and come back smug."

Roselia tilted her head. "No. That's not smugness. That's clarity."

Leon reached them. The arena crowd roared behind them, chanting "Rhythm Sovereign!" again and again.

Naval, arms crossed, asked, "So… what's next?"

Leon looked up.

Beyond Floor 302… was the unknown. New worlds. New echoes.

But for now?

He simply said:

"We go deeper."

The moment Leon returned to the team, a distant pulse echoed through the Tower.

Not from the arena.

Not from his weapon.

But from the Tower itself.

[System Alert – Rhythm Sovereign Registered]

"Cognitive Sync Layer Detected."

"Granting clearance: Echo-Tier Constructs, Ancient Pulse Devices, and Sovereign Trials."

"Your actions have resonated with dormant systems."

Roselia blinked. "That… sounded ancient."

Liliana shivered. "It wasn't just a system notice. That felt like a voice from the Tower's base layer."

And then—

A symbol formed on Leon's back—visible to all.

An orbiting spiral of three lines crossed by a vertical fracture.

The emblem of Echo Sovereignty.

Echo-Tech Interface Unlocked – Leon can now interact with ancient pulse-forged devices embedded across certain hidden layers of the Tower.

Pulse Gate Recognition – Certain floors (especially in the 310–399 bracket) have sealed areas known as Pulse Vaults. Only Sovereign-ranked Ascenders can access them.

Authority Over Battle Tempo Fields – In designated arenas, Leon can now shift the combat tempo field, controlling the rhythm of time in a local radius.

Faction Attention – Multiple powerful factions are instantly alerted:

The Deep Harmonics Choir (Floor 350+)

The Fragmented Clockbinders (Floor 370+)

The Archive of Echoed War (Floor 390+, linked to ancient wars and memory combat)

Milim looked at him. "So... we're famous now?"

Naval nodded. "More like watched. From now on, every major force with half a brain will either want to recruit us…"

"…or remove us," Roman finished.

Rather than moving up via the usual corridor gate, a different passage had opened from the Stormbearer forge:

a sealed tempo corridor, humming with blue-gold echoes.

Only Leon could open it.

"Let's see what kind of world responds to a Sovereign," he said, stepping forward.

They emerged into a place like nothing they'd seen.

The sky above wasn't solid. It pulsed in rhythmic waves.

Floating segments of machinery, libraries, and time-shards drifted like constellations.

Clockwork dragons circled distant towers.

Gears the size of cities slowly turned in the background.

Fracture Gateworks – an abandoned floor once used to store and calibrate ancient Pulse Relics. Now forgotten, glitched, and crawling with autonomous Echo Constructs and fractured A.I. echoes of long-lost Ascenders.

Liliana looked around. "This place is dead."

Leon tilted his head. "No. It's dormant."

A voice answered.

"Incorrect, Rhythm Sovereign. This system remains online."

A fractured humanoid form appeared—a glimmering silver projection with half a face, haloed by gears.

"I am Key-Voice Astra.Loom – caretaker of Gatework Sector Theta."

"You have the pulse. Therefore, you may proceed."

Astra paused.

"But be warned. This floor is fractured because time bled backward here. Many entities who died long ago… still remember how to fight."

Locate and stabilize 3 Pulse Nodes to unlock the Gateworks Core.

Defeat rogue Echo-Construct Champions, some still carrying battle memories of heroes from 200+ floors above.

Reforge and awaken a dormant Floor Guardian Core—a potential ally or weapon.

Leon's blade hummed.

Temporfang now began reacting to floor anomalies, almost like a compass… or a heartbeat searching for a rhythm to sync with.

Roselia raised an eyebrow. "Where first?"

Leon smiled. "Let's find out what happens… when echoes meet echoes."