It knew their names.
The sky was still dim.
The storm had darkened it, streaks of lightning flashing constantly across the horizon. The car drove through it all , with a goal, a mission: to destroy what obscured the light, to mend what was broken and distorted. A cleansing.
Ahead lay the industrial quarter.
They followed Father Ilyas's map. The city's disruption was reaching its climax — lights flickering, sinkholes appearing, sirens looping endlessly.
Marcus drove on, calm amid the storm. The others sat in silence beside him, weighed by fear and anticipation of what was to come. The pendant against Marcus's chest flared with bright light; he could sense Thecla's call, the hum of divine presence pulsing like a heartbeat beneath his ribs.
"The light will prevail," she whispered. "It will purge anything that stands against His will."
The words were distant, yet closer than the air they breathed.
Elias silently studied the map. Lila watched the mist play along the streetlamps. Then, without warning, the mist folded back — lightning retreating, revealing streets that shouldn't exist.
"This isn't on the map," Elias said, frowning.
Jonathan leaned forward. "I think we've driven into the heart of something mysterious."
He couldn't explain why he said it — only that it felt true.
The map led them to a sealed foundry built over an old stone quarry.
"Is this the true Foundation?" Marcus asked, parking beside a rusted machine.
The walls were worn and scarred, but the graffiti across them had changed — twisting into faint glowing runes.
"This was once a mining site," Elias said. "Closed after a gas leak decades ago."
Marcus moved closer, tracing his hand over the faded metal. He realized the foundry aligned exactly with the hotel's original architectural grid.
"Is this the place?" Lila asked softly.
"Definitely," Marcus replied. The pendant shone even brighter, filling the dark with golden fire. The proof they needed.
"The Foundation lies below."
They gathered their gear — flashlights, ropes, crowbars, and an old miner's elevator that still worked.
"I'll go down," Marcus said firmly. "You stay here. If I'm not back in two hours, leave without me."
"No," Jonathan said, his voice steady. "I'll go with you. If my sister's light brought us here, I won't stay behind."
Marcus hesitated but then remembered Thecla's words:
He carries what you lack, Marcus , the bond of blood, the key of faith.
He nodded. "All right."
The two prepared to descend, leaving Lila and Elias to guard the car. Elias rigged a flare line to mark their path, just in case.
Before stepping into the lift, Marcus whispered a prayer.
"Lord, guide us. Let Your light surround us. Restore us, Lord. Make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."
The lift groaned beneath their weight as it lowered into darkness. The walls closed in — stone carved with ancient sigils that pulsed like burning roots. The deeper they went, the warmer the air became, thick with metallic dust and a faint, dry heat.
Marcus's pendant lit the tunnel in a gentle gold hue, pushing the shadows back. Jonathan froze, eyes wide.
"Marcus… do you hear that?"
Marcus listened. There it was , faint but steady , a heartbeat, deep and rhythmic.
"Yes," he said quietly. "It's the beating of a heart."
"The heart that Thecla mentioned," Jonathan murmured. "We've found it."
They reached the bottom , an ancient cavern shaped like a ribcage, red veins pulsing along the stone in perfect rhythm.
In the center lay a black altar fused to the rock — the Heart of Shinshigan. Around it stood broken chains, melted idols, and faint outlines of the hotel's floor plan carved into the ground. The carvings showed the truth: the city itself had been built to feed this core.
Marcus realized it then,that the hotel had never been the prison. The city was. The city was the vessel.
Light poured from the pendant, white and pure, filling the cavern. Thecla's voice whispered through it , it was soft but strong.
"What was built from pride will end in light."
The ground shook. The red veins brightened, pulsing as if alive. The air thickened with heat and mist.
Then, from the shadows, a shape formed ,tall, half-human, half-shadow, carrying the mark of the Host.
Griff.
What was left of him, anyway.
He moved like smoke given shape. His voice was doubled — Griff's and Hermon's, echoing through the stone.
"Join me," the voice said, deep and thunderous. "Surrender, and your deaths will be painless. He can remake the world. You can't stop what you're standing on."
Jonathan stepped forward, trembling but resolute. "We won't surrender."
The pendant on Marcus's chest burst into blinding light. It flared outward, touching the runes on Griff's body. The marks hissed, then burned away , melting like wax beneath a flame.
Griff roared, retreating into the smoke. "Then the heart will wake for you!"
The cavern shuddered violently. Rocks split from the ceiling. Marcus grabbed Jonathan's arm.
"Let's go!"
They raced toward the lift as the ground crumbled behind them. Gold and crimson light clashed through the cavern — divine against corrupted.
As they rose, Marcus looked down one last time , and saw the heart open like an eye, glowing red and alive, staring straight at him.
Above ground, Lila and Elias felt the tremor. The earth split beneath their feet, golden light spilling upward through the cracks.
They didn't know what had happened ,only that something ancient had awakened.
The heart of Shinshigan had begun to beat again.
And this time, it knew their names.