The morning came shrouded in ash.
The sky above the central continent was colorless — not gray, not silver, just hollow. The storm clouds hung motionless, as if afraid to move. Only the low hum beneath the earth hinted that something ancient had begun to stir.
The facility's lower decks trembled with low-frequency energy. Technicians shouted across terminals, data streams flickering red. Lucien was everywhere at once — voice sharp, face pale — while Nox handled comm relays and monitored Sid's vitals remotely.
Sid himself stood in the observation hangar, wrapped in bandages from the Blackbind trial. His hands still trembled faintly; the faint crimson fire flickered beneath the skin, refusing to fade no matter how hard he suppressed it.
Behind him, Yara leaned against the railing. The sigil on her neck pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, connected through the residual energy link from the last operation.
"You shouldn't be moving," she said quietly.
Sid didn't answer right away. He was staring through the glass at the horizon — the fractured lands beyond the containment dome.
"Lucien said the Ninth Seal lies beneath the Arkspire ruins," he murmured. "That's where the fractures originated."
"And we're the ones going in," Yara said flatly.
"Of course," Sid replied. "Because no one else can survive it."
There was a moment of silence before Lucien's voice crackled through the intercom:
"All units, report to launch bay two. Operation Breach commences in ten minutes."
The team assembled in the drop vessel: Sid, Yara, Nox, and Reinhardt — the latter in heavy containment armor designed for high-pressure dimensional instability. The black plates shimmered with violet seals, engraved with the language of the old pantheon.
Reinhardt fastened the last latch of his gauntlet and looked toward Sid.
"You ready for this? You look like hell."
Sid smirked faintly. "Been through worse."
"That's the problem," Reinhardt muttered. "You keep surviving things no one should."
Nox flicked on her console, scanning the terrain as the vessel began to descend. "Coordinates locked. Once we breach atmospheric layer four, communications might drop. Stay close, and whatever happens—"
"Don't touch the walls," Yara finished for her. "They're not… walls, exactly."
The ship plunged through the last layer of cloud.
What lay below wasn't earth. It was a scar — a massive canyon splitting the continent in two, filled with a mist that shimmered like fractured glass. At its heart stood the Arkspire Temple, a monument of black stone entwined with metallic roots, glowing faintly with divine runes long since broken.
Sid felt it the moment they crossed into its perimeter — the pulse.
Not sound. Not vibration. A heartbeat.
The heartbeat of something buried beneath the world.
The ship landed on a fractured platform. As the doors opened, heat and cold rushed in at once — contradictory currents of air colliding violently.
They stepped out, weapons ready, and silence fell.
The temple rose before them like a monument to extinction — vast, ancient, and impossibly tall, its outer walls covered in symbols that shifted whenever looked at directly.
"This isn't built by the gods," Lucien's voice came faintly through static. "The readings match nothing in divine architecture. It's… older."
"How old?" Yara asked.
"Older than creation as we know it."
Sid brushed his fingers across a section of the wall. The symbols burned faintly at his touch — responding to the Blackbind energy within him. The pulse beneath the ground grew stronger.
"Something recognizes you," Nox said softly.
"No," Sid replied. "It recognizes the chains.
They entered the main corridor — an endless hallway of broken statues. Each figure was massive, humanoid but eyeless, their faces eroded beyond recognition. Some were missing limbs, others fused into the wall as though devoured by the structure itself.
Yara whispered, "Titans…"
Lucien's voice hissed faintly through static.
"Records mention twelve Titans — the Hollowed Ones, created when the gods attempted to bind the First Flame. They were never meant to wake again."
Reinhardt moved closer to one, scanning it.
"Then why do I hear it breathing?"
Everyone froze.
The sound was faint but undeniable — the rasp of something ancient inhaling. Then, one of the statues moved.
A low rumble filled the chamber. Cracks spread across the floor as molten lines of black fire surged from beneath the Titan's feet. The creature's chest split open, revealing a hollow void swirling with liquid light. Its voice wasn't sound — it was vibration, shaking every bone in their bodies.
"INTRUDERS… THE SEAL… SHALL NOT… BE BREACHED…"
Reinhardt raised his arm cannon. "Sid!"
Sid unleashed a surge of Blackbind Flame — the blast struck the Titan's chest, but instead of burning, the energy was absorbed. The creature's hollow chest filled with crimson light.
"It's feeding off my power!" Sid shouted.
Yara drew her blade, runes igniting along its edge. "Then stop holding back!"
She darted forward, slashing across the creature's leg. The impact shattered the stone but released a burst of ethereal fire that sent her flying. Nox caught her midair with a kinetic field.
The Titan roared — soundless, but the world itself rippled.
In the chaos, Reinhardt advanced — activating his containment core. His armor glowed white, symbols expanding across his chest plate.
"You want a seal?" he growled. "I'll give you one!"
He drove his gauntlet into the ground. Energy exploded outward — a divine suppression field that momentarily froze the Titan in place. But the reaction was violent. The runes across the walls ignited simultaneously, channeling directly into Reinhardt's armor.
"Reinhardt, stop! You're drawing from the temple itself!" Nox shouted.
Too late.
The power overwhelmed him — light searing through his veins, armor cracking under the surge. His voice distorted, layered with another — deep, ancient, and cold.
"The seal… must hold…"
Sid felt the pulse again — stronger this time, synchronizing with Reinhardt's heartbeat.
The Titan shattered, crumbling to dust. But the cost was clear — Reinhardt collapsed, his armor burning with lines of unfamiliar energy.
Yara knelt beside him. "Rein! Look at me!"
His eyes flickered open — glowing gold, not his usual blue.
"I… heard it," he whispered. "A voice beneath the seals… It said the Ninth is broken."
Sid froze. "What?"
Reinhardt's voice deepened, his expression emptying.
"It's awake, Sid. The thing beneath this temple… it's awake."
The ground split apart. A wave of blinding light surged from below — not divine, not demonic, but something else entirely.
The Ninth Seal shattered like glass, sending fragments of glowing runes into the air.
From the chasm below, a massive shape began to rise.
Not a Titan — something larger. Older. A being without form, made of endless shadow and light tangled together. Its voice was like the echo of eternity breaking.
"THE FLAMES SHALL BE UNBOUND…"
Nox screamed over the comms. "Sid, pull back! The entire site's collapsing!"
Sid didn't move. His chains pulsed violently — black and crimson threads weaving together, reacting to the energy beneath.
"This is it," he said quietly. "The Ninth Seal's true nature…"
Yara grabbed his arm. "We'll die if we stay here!"
"Then we die stopping it," he replied, eyes burning with both flames.
The ground erupted again, forcing them back. Reinhardt stood, body shaking, his voice split between two tones.
""I… can hold it back… just go…"
"No!" Nox cried.
Sid clenched his fists — the chains coiling like serpents around his arms.
"Reinhardt," he said, voice breaking, "don't do this."
Reinhardt smiled faintly — but it wasn't entirely him anymore.
"You said it yourself, Sid. No one else can survive this."
Then he slammed his gauntlet into the ground.
Light devoured everything.
When the blast faded, the temple was gone.
Only a crater remained, miles wide, glowing faintly with the remnants of the Seal.
The drop vessel hovered above the devastation, carrying Sid, Yara, and Nox — silent, shaken, alive.
Lucien's voice came faintly through the static:
"Extraction complete… What happened to Reinhardt?"
Sid stared at the burning horizon, eyes reflecting crimson fire.
"He didn't die," Sid whispered. "He… became part of it."
Yara looked at him sharply. "Part of what?"
Sid's gaze darkened.
"The Ninth Seal."