The cave grew warmer the deeper they went.
Not the honest warmth of fire or life, but something stagnant—like breath trapped too long beneath stone. The walls glistened faintly, reflecting Kyle's low-burning kyz light in distorted ripples. Every sound echoed wrong. Footsteps returned a half-second late. Drips of water fell where there should have been none.
Kaelen slowed.
Kyle noticed immediately. "What is it?" she asked quietly.
"Nothing," he said.
But his blades trembled.
Not with excitement.
With warning.
Kaelen didn't like places like this. Not because of danger—danger was honest—but because of intent. This cave wasn't merely hosting beasts. It was inviting them. Shaping itself to receive violence. That subtle pull, that whisper at the edge of awareness… it reminded him of worlds that fed on despair rather than sunlight.
The capital's outskirts were beautiful above ground. Polished stone. Flowing banners. Order enforced by power. Below it all, rot learned how to smile.
They advanced carefully until the tunnel widened into a chamber—and there she was.
A girl sat near a broken stone pillar, knees drawn to her chest. Her clothes were torn, her skin unmarred. Dark hair spilled down her shoulders like ink, eyes wide and shining with fear.
Kyle inhaled sharply. "A survivor?"
Kaelen didn't answer.
The girl looked up, startled, then scrambled to her feet. "P-please," she said, voice trembling perfectly on the edge of breaking. "Don't leave me here. I was taken. They brought me here and—"
She stumbled toward Kaelen and reached for his hand.
Her fingers were warm.
Her pulse steady.
Her fear… controlled.
Kyle's kyz flared instinctively, sharp and defensive. "Don't touch him," she snapped, stepping forward.
The girl recoiled, surprise flashing across her face for just a fraction of a second—too fast for Kyle to consciously register, but not for Kaelen.
Kaelen gently withdrew his hand.
For a heartbeat, the cave was silent.
Then steel kissed flesh.
Kaelen's blade rested against the girl's throat, close enough that her breath brushed the edge.
"Enough," he said calmly.
Kyle froze. "Kaelen—?"
"You draw masters here," Kaelen continued, voice even. "You lure them with helplessness. You let the beasts exhaust them. Then something else finishes the work."
The girl swallowed.
Her eyes flicked—not to Kyle, not to the blade—but to the shadows behind Kaelen.
"I'm not merciful," Kaelen said. "And I don't ask twice."
For a moment, the girl stared at him.
Then she laughed.
It was soft at first. Nervous. Then sharper. Bitter.
She stepped back, hands raised. "Sharp," she admitted. "You're very sharp."
Kyle's grip tightened on her relic. "Kaelen—"
"Yes," the girl said quickly. "It was me. I guided the beasts. I guided the masters too. This place… responds to desire. Greed. Curiosity. You'd be surprised how many strong people follow a whisper."
Her gaze darkened. "But I wasn't alone."
She dropped to her knees and screamed, "Master! Please! Come save me!"
The cave answered.
Pressure slammed down like a collapsing sky.
Kyle gasped as her relic screamed in protest, light distorting wildly around her arm. Kaelen felt his bracelet constrict, its runes burning hot against his wrist—as if trying to restrain something it feared.
The shadows folded inward.
A man stepped forward.
He wore a mask of dull black metal, featureless except for thin slits where eyes glowed faintly gold. His armor was layered, etched with sigils that drank in Kyle's light rather than reflecting it. He carried a long spear, its shaft vibrating with restrained force.
Kaelen felt it immediately.
This was not a general.
This was something older. Sharper. Purpose-built.
The girl scrambled toward him. "You promised—!"
His boot struck her ribs.
The sound was wet and final.
She crashed into the stone wall and slid down, coughing blood, eyes wide with disbelief.
"I promised nothing," the man said flatly. "You failed. You revealed yourself."
He raised his spear.
Kyle reacted instantly.
Her relic flared, releasing a pulse of compressed kyz that locked the space around him, freezing motion mid-step. "Stop!" she commanded, voice shaking but resolute.
For one impossible heartbeat—
He paused.
Then reality fractured.
The binding shattered as if it had never existed. The man stepped through the broken light and drove his spear forward.
Kaelen moved.
His twin blades crossed the spear's path in a deafening clash that sent shockwaves rippling through the cave. Stone cracked. Kyle was thrown backward, barely managing to stabilize herself.
The impact tore skin from Kaelen's palms.
His vessel screamed.
"Kyle," Kaelen said sharply without looking back, "I can't take him alone."
She didn't argue. She surged forward, relic blazing, attacking from the flank.
The fight became chaos for the cave.
The masked man didn't overpower them.
He controlled them.
Every strike Kaelen made was measured, limited by the tolerance of his body. Every time Kyle pressed with full force, he redirected her momentum, using her own power against her. His movements were precise, efficient—trained not to dominate, but to end.
Kaelen was bleeding.
Not mortal wounds—but the kind that reminded him he was bound by flesh.
The girl sobbed weakly in the corner, clutching her shattered ribs, forgotten.
The masked man drove Kyle back with a sweeping arc of his spear, then turned his full attention to Kaelen.
"You're interesting," he said. "A Rank Ten using high relics without collapse."
Kaelen said nothing.
The battle continued for a long time but none of the sided ever overpowered other. Both sides were controlled.
He was calculating.
His body could not endure more.
But the enemy would not retreat.
The bracelet burned.
Enough.
Kaelen resisted it.
Pain detonated through his nerves, searing white-hot through his spine. Lightning crawled along the cursed blades, screaming as they drank more kyz than they were meant to.
Kyle shouted his name.
Too late.
Kaelen uses a technique for the first time.
Kaelen stepped forward and swung.
The lightning slash tore through the cave like judgment itself.
The masked man's arm severed cleanly, spinning through the air before clattering to the stone.
Silence.
The man caught his fallen limb calmly.
"You have challenged the Divine Cult," he said coldly. "This will not end."
The shadows folded.
He vanished into the shadows.
Kaelen collapsed.
The world went dark.