[Setting: Inner Walls of Kitezh, Approaching the Central Temple]
The outer siege was a diversion; the real battle was here, in the cold, preserved heart of Kitezh. The inner city was a labyrinth of frozen streets, towering white monuments, and crystalline structures—a beautiful, deadly backdrop to the escalating conflict.
Leo, Lara, and their unwilling prisoner, Ana, moved with urgent speed along the less-defended aqueducts. Ana, pale and shivering, was zip-tied but offered no resistance, her sickness and recent defeat draining her fight. She served as both a compass and a shield.
"Konstantin will be in the central temple. That structure," Ana rasped, nodding toward a colossal, pyramidal building of gold and ice that dominated the city skyline. "The Chamber of the Divine Source is beneath it. He needs the ATLAS fragment to know the final ritual, but he has men clearing the path."
Lara, holding the ATLAS fragment tight, kept her pistol trained on Ana's back. "Where is the weakest entry point? He'll have the main approach heavily fortified."
"The Western Bell Tower," Ana answered, her voice hollow. "It's an unstable structure, ancient. Trinity bypassed it, but it leads to the maintenance tunnels directly under the temple's foundations. He'll have placed a skeleton crew there, thinking no one else would dare."
The Western Bell Tower Ambush
The Bell Tower was a towering, precarious structure of ornate, frozen wood and stone. It leaned dangerously, swaying slightly in the powerful gusts of wind that swept the valley. As they approached, Leo's trained focus detected a small, but lethal, Trinity security detail waiting in the tower's shadows.
"Three men inside. Tier 4," Leo murmured, shouldering The Phantom. "They're static, waiting for us to enter the base. They're too far from the central fight to be useful to Konstantin, but they'll sacrifice themselves to stop us."
"We can't risk a firefight here; the wood is ancient and saturated with ice," Lara warned. "Any explosion could collapse the tower, burying us and Ana."
They needed a silent, structural takedown.
"We use the structure itself," Leo decided. "Lara, use your axe to climb the opposite wooden support beam. Get to the second level. I'll take the ground floor support. When I give the signal, we use sheer force on the main crossbeams."
They separated. Leo, moving silently, found the primary, load-bearing crossbeam on the ground floor. He drove his Pry Axe into the joint, creating a leverage point.
Lara ascended with breathtaking agility, securing her own axe deep into the joint on the second level.
"Ready, Leo!"
"Now!"
Simultaneously, leveraging their combined maximum Strength (Leo at 21), they heaved down on their respective leverage points. The sound was not of an explosion, but a massive, splintering CRACK! as the weight of the structure shifted violently.
The shockwave alone was enough. The three Trinity soldiers, momentarily stunned by the sudden, terrifying instability of the tower, lost their footing. Leo surged forward.
He found the first soldier staggering in the sudden darkness, his rifle wavering. Leo engaged him in brutal, silent melee, ending the fight with a swift, final thrust of his axe.
Lara, utilizing the chaos above, dispatched the second soldier with a quick takedown, then threw her own Pry Axe with powerful accuracy across the gap. It struck the third soldier's leg, pinning him to the floor.
[Trinity Security Detail (3/3) Neutralized!]
The Tunnel Descent and The Deathless Trap
With the tower temporarily stabilized, they entered the treacherous descent—a network of dark, cramped maintenance tunnels beneath the city. Ana, stumbling through the dark, was forced to lead the way.
"Konstantin has a massive Trinity force guarding the interior. Why only three men here?" Lara demanded, shining her light on Ana.
Ana coughed, her breath rattling. "Because this path belongs to the Deathless. He knew only a few human lives were needed to confirm your arrival, and the Undying Guard would finish the job."
As if on cue, a grating sound echoed down the tunnel. Not human footsteps, but the heavy, unnatural clank of ancient, ice-encrusted armor. Two Deathless Guards, alerted by the tower's collapse, rounded the corner.
They were armed with massive, ceremonial halberds, their cold blue eyes fixed on the invaders.
"Tight quarters! Can't use the rifle!" Leo yelled, dropping The Phantom and drawing his Pry Axe. The tunnels were too narrow for long-range engagement.
The first guard lunged. Leo met the attack, using his axe to block the halberd's shaft. He pushed with all his Strength, momentarily staggering the ancient warrior.
The second guard moved to flank, pinning Lara against the narrow tunnel wall. Lara fought back fiercely, using her smaller Grapple-Axe to parry the massive weapon, but the guard's inhuman strength was overwhelming.
Leo saw Lara pinned and acted with desperate speed. He drove his elbow backward, creating space, then executed a powerful, precision kick to the first Deathless Guard's knee. The ancient ice armor cracked, buying him a crucial second.
He sprinted past the struggling guard toward the wall, slamming his axe not into the enemy, but into the nearest geothermal conduit pipe. The impact ripped the pipe open, unleashing a blast of superheated steam.
The steam jet hit the second Deathless Guard, whose ancient armor, preserved in the cold, violently rejected the intense heat. The guard convulsed, the joints of its armor seizing.
Lara seized the advantage, shattering the frozen grip of the guard's weapon and plunging her smaller axe deep into the exposed neck cavity. The guard collapsed, its unholy light fading.
Leo turned back to the first guard, which was advancing despite its shattered leg. He dodged a wild swing and then, with a massive, two-handed swing fueled by pure fury, he drove his Pry Axe through the guard's helmet and deep into its skull.
[Deathless Guard (2/2) Neutralized!]
Leo stood over the slain figures, his chest heaving, the stench of sulfur and death filling the confined space.
"The heart of the city," Lara said, her voice laced with exhaustion and cold fury, looking at the dead warriors. "This is what my father died to protect the world from."
Leo retrieved his rifle and looked at Ana. Her eyes were wide with fear, not of them, but of the Deathless Guard.
"You led us into a trap, Ana," Leo stated, his voice flat.
"I just led you to the only path. The Divine Source is here, in the chamber above us," Ana whispered, trembling. "Konstantin is preparing the ritual. He's counting on the Guard to stall you."
They had reached the maintenance room beneath the central temple. A final, vertical shaft led straight up to the Chamber of the Divine Source. The air vibrating with a strange, powerful, humming energy.
"We go up," Lara commanded, her eyes fixed on the ascent. "It ends now."