The cathedral loomed over us as we walked closer. Its stone was a faded gray, cracked in places yet stubbornly upright, as though time itself had tried to bring it down and failed. Its massive stained-glass windows were dark no light spilled from within. The doors were not carved wood but cold, black iron, veined with rust.
On top of cathedral was the symbol that we have been seeing throughout this ordeal, The symbol of Oath.
As we stepped through, the temperature dropped. The sound of the outside forest vanished, replaced by the echo of our footsteps on marble. Inside, the hall stretched like a hollow spine, ribbed with broken arches. Dust spiraled in shafts of dim light that pushed through the fractured ceiling.
We were swallowed whole by silence. No wind, no creak of stone. Stained glass lay shattered in the aisles, its colored shards glowing faintly under the Grey Light filtering through holes in the roof.
Every statue lining the cathedral was bound in Murals, But Our attention went towards the one particular statue. At the end of the the hall was a statue, Standing high and above, With his One hand he raised a sword towards the ceiling and His other towards his Chest. It felt like taking a vow. His marble face was carved and was beyond recognition. Just looking at the statue I felt something move in me. Snapping out of it,
I kept my hand near my sword.
And then I saw it. No we all saw it.
At first, I thought it was part of the architecture. A colossal figure slumped at the center, beneath the fractured dome, its body fused into the floor with lengths of black iron chain.
It shifted.
The air turned heavy, metallic. The thing rose slowly, and only then did its form make sense, if you could call it sense.
It was humanoid, but grotesquely stretched, towering so high it almost brushed the cathedral's ceiling. Its flesh was gray, broken by ridges of metal that grew out of it like bone. Its face had no eyes, only a jagged maw filled with ash, where embers burned faintly.
Chains pierced its shoulders and chest, rattling as it moved, yet none of them dragged on the ground they writhed, alive, like serpents. It had a massive gash on his shoulders and chest and black ichor spilled itself on the floor.
But my attention went towards its neck, On it was a silvery glow, A small chain of silver lay-more like attached around its neck like a pendant.
The cathedral itself groaned under the weight of its presence.
Nolan whispered, his voice shaking,"…What is that?"
Veyra's jaw tightened."A chain-mutated beast. I think Layer Four."
The thing let out a sound not a growl. It was a wail. A thousand voices crying in unison, reverberating through the walls. My teeth rattled. My knees nearly buckled.
And then, it moved.
A massive arm swung down, the impact blasting pews into splinters. Lex surged forward first, fire flaring along his arms as his Bone Skin cracked into place. He caught the edge of its strike and was hurled like a ragdoll into a column. The stone pillar snapped, collapsing over him.
Veyra stepped forward first, chains spiraling from her hands with surgical precision. They lashed at the beast's knees, snapping taut, slowing its first step.
"Keep formation," she said flatly.
Nolan surged next, great sword raised. A singularity point flickered behind the Colossus's leg, dragging it off balance just enough for him to cleave across the joint. Sparks flew. The blade barely nicked the chain-flesh, but it forced the thing to stagger.
Phoebe darted low, kunai flashing as her perception sharpened . Icicles cracked into existence, spearing at the beast's side, but its writhing chains whipped them from the air before impact.
The Colossus swung an arm like a collapsing tower. Lex vaulted forward, bone-skin flaring, intercepting with his reinforced gauntlets. The impact sent cracks spidering across the marble floor and flung him back into a column.
"Lex!" Vivi cried, rushing to him, hand already glowing with healing light, her stamina bolstered by her passive.
Veyra restricted her entire Thread of Gate, Suddenly her body became light, Her chains became heavier, She lunged towards it's Chest Where there was a open wound.
But the chains embedded in his chest covered the wound and shot towards her with incredible speed.
Veyra body now moved much faster the chains moving towards her surrounded her, Being almost hit she backed off and called forth her layer 3 Chains, With a low hum she whispered "Chains of Damnation" and huge tower like chains shot forward.
The Colossus exhaled. A gray wave of ash swept over them, searing eyes and lungs. Nolan shoved a shield wall forward, shimmering faintly but the ash ate into the light, burning his arms beneath the strain.
Phoebe coughed, blood flecking her lips. "It's not… normal fire…"
Lily loosed arrows into its chest, the shots vanishing into ash clouds. The Colossus didn't even slow. Her Thread of Oblivion made the missed shots slip from its awareness, but its sheer size made forgetting one arrow irrelevant.
Chains lashed out. One struck where Nolan's mother sat by the fallen Lex. Nolan's shield flashed into being just in time, the chain rebounding, but his arms quivered violently. His shield flickered, on the edge of shattering.
"I've got her!" Vivi dropped beside Nolan's mother, dragging her back toward the corner, blade ready though her hands shook.
I darted forward, chains erupting from my palm. They coiled around the Colossus's arm, straining, but compared to Veyra's, his chains were fragile threads against iron.
The Colossus yanked once. I was torn from his feet and smashed into the floor, ribs cracking.
Pain screamed through me. I staggered up, tasting blood. Too weak. Always behind them.
He forced himself calm, my Thread of Stillness dulling the chaos in my mind. For a heartbeat, the Colossus's swinging limb froze mid-air long enough for Phoebe to roll clear and drive her sword into its knee.
But the beast tore free, chains whipping in retaliation, and Phoebe was flung against a wall.
Suddenly, The cathedral shuddered.
With a stomp, The beast fractured the ground and released a surge of molten ash from beneath, creating small river of choking, fiery sludge. The whole cathedral turned red.
Nolan roared, greatsword blazing with hope's faint glow, slamming into the Colossus's ankle. Lex lit his fists with embers, forcing the chains to recoil. Veyra's astral chains bound its shoulders, but they strained, screaming, threads unraveling under the pressure.
The Colossus leaned down, maw splitting wide, ash surging into a concentrated beam. It aimed at Nolan, at his mother behind him.
I staggered up, vision dimming. Something Lifted not in my body, but the barrier he'd been pressed against all this time.
His chains writhed differently. Stronger. He whispered to himself, "Restrict… Stillness."
The world shifted. My Chains swelled, every summoned chain now heavier, denser, filled with oppressive weight. They shot forward, a dozen black serpents, wrapping the Colossus's arm mid-beam. The ash blast sputtered, redirected into the rafters.
Dust and fire rained.
"Sol…" Phoebe muttered, clutching her ribs, watching the chains bite deep into the monster's flesh.
The Colossus howled, chains thrashing wildly. Veyra seized the moment, her astral bind crashing down, pinning the beast's torso to the cathedral floor. Nolan surged, shield flaring as he drove his greatsword down into the glowing fissure at its chest.
Lex's burning fists slammed into its knee, bones cracking. Phoebe, timing her strike with slowed perception, drove a kunai into one of its glowing fissures.
The beast buckled, but even restrained, it tore half the floor away with its chains.
The ground groaned, fractured.
And then — everything collapsed.
The cathedral floor gave way. The cohort plunged into darkness, marble and dust tumbling beside them.
It wasn't a fall of seconds. It was minutes. A kilometer of abyss. Wind roared past their ears, ash trailing like smoke.
The Colossus fell with them, chains still writhing in the air like living things, its wail echoing through the cavernous drop.
The world had become nothing but the sound of stone tearing apart and the wind clawing at their faces.The cathedral floor had crumbled beneath them, sending pillars, walls, and shattered glass plunging into a hollow abyss.
The Colossus fell with them, its chains writhing desperately, clawing for purchase. For a moment, it almost seemed like those chains would grab them, drag them into its embrace on the way down.
But even its reach faltered as gravity claimed it. Its massive body twisted, and it plummeted headfirst, its humanoid frame framed against the faint shafts of light from the collapsing cathedral above.
"Brace!" Veyra's voice was sharp, almost drowned by the roar of descent. Her hands blazed with chains, weaving them into a makeshift net that latched onto tumbling stone. The net slowed their fall by fractions, enough to keep their bones from shattering on impact.
Nolan wrapped his arms around his mother, shield flickering into existence beneath them like a glowing disk. It shattered on impact, but the delay spared them.
Lex's gauntlets struck first, his bone-skin bracing against the rubble, absorbing the shock as he cratered into the ground. He coughed blood, but stood.
Phoebe's perception bent time itself; she twisted her landing, striking rubble at just the right angles to roll out. She still limped when she rose, ankle screaming, but alive.
Vivi's hand glowed faintly green, softening Nolan's mother's fall even as her own body slammed hard enough to bruise ribs.
I hit last. My chains lashed out instinctively, snagging fallen marble to slow me, my body skidding across the dark floor. My chest burned, but my limbs held. Barely.
A thunderclap echoed through the cavern.
The Colossus struck far deeper, its immense weight driving it through the collapsed floor. The impact shook the chamber like an earthquake. Chains screamed as they snapped, unspooling in sparks.
The beast writhed, crushed under collapsed pillars and mountains of stone. Its maw gaped once more, ash spilling weakly into the darkness. Then the glow in its fissures dimmed, one by one, until its body slumped still.
Even in death, it was terrifying, its chain-bound limbs sprawled like broken monuments across the abyss floor.
Veyra stood first, chest heaving. She stared at the corpse, blood on her lip. "The fall.....It killed him"
Her voice was flat, but her eyes lingered on the Colossus with a rare flicker of unease.