NOVPUBThe Chained Man stood atop the tallest spire of the holy cathedral, his arms stretched outward, eyes closed to the heavens as blood mist curled around him.
Beneath his feet, the very air vibrated with power. Battle raged across Edenhold below, the shouts and cries of both the dying and the victorious rising up to meet him.
The city was burning, and he drank deeply from the chaos.
"Yesss." He whispered. "Moreee."
His chains rattled, not with restraint, but with hunger. Every life lost fed the great mechanism that he had personally carved into the bones of the cathedral itself.
A ring of soulsteel had been embedded into the tower's summit centuries ago, dormant until now. The Chained Man activated it with a dark grin, and the power immediately began flooding through him.
Conflict. Blood. Death. Betrayal. Each act of war below was another drop in the cup of his ascension.
The wind howled around him, but he heard only the rattling of his chains and the faint, ghostly hum of the world itself straining as his intent shaped the power at his fingertips.
The resonance of the world coiled like serpents around his limbs, wrapping around his torso and anchoring him to the spire. Not to restrict him, but to amplify the ritual.
He opened his eyes. They burned with pale silver light, a reflection of the divinity that was beginning to stream slowly but surely into him.
"Yesss." He whispered, smiling without warmth.
He extended one arm and unwrapped a single chain from his forearm. It slithered across the air like a living thing and plunged downward, striking the cathedral itself.
Instantly, the runes he had carved deep into the stone activated. Light speared out of the cracks in the stone. The network of steel he'd buried beneath Edenhold, created long before the Church claimed divinity, began thrumming.
It connected to all the infected that were present in the city. His seeds. His conduit.
He reached into his chest, placing a palm over his heart. A series of black marks glowed to life beneath his skin, and from the depth of his soul, he pulled out a sphere, dark and glass-like. Several screaming faces emerged from it, trying to get out.
This was the reason the Three had taken a long sleep of centuries. Each had created their own sphere. Now, it was his turn to use his.
He held it up to his mouth, and whispered a name to it.
The sphere responded, flashing with impossible colors, and then shattering into motes of dust that sank into his heart.
Above him, the sky cracked for a moment. Just a hairline fracture. A sign that this world was beginning to notice.
He grinned. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
"Come watch, Yggdrasil. Witness the rise of a god you cannot tame."
Then, with a groan like the bowing of old trees, the chains wrapped tighter, forming a cocoon of glowing iron.
Inside it, the Chained Man floated. His body began to disassemble, bone separating from marrow, blood turned to mist, soul unfurling like a tapestry.
He was slowly becoming a promise.
A promise of ascension through suffering.
"Soon." He murmured. "Soon, I will no longer need to chain myself to this world. I will unshackle all of reality."
And the ascension continued, growing stronger with every drop of blood spilled beneath the burning skies.
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Down below in the holy cathedral, Ren stormed through the dark hallways of the building, searching for the entrance of the prison.
The rest of the group followed after him, their footsteps echoing around them. None of them spoke. Words were pointless now, because they all knew what was happening.
They were lost.
They'd taken so many turns, doubling back and passing through so many stairwells that even Ren wasn't sure where they were anymore.
At this point, he was just looking for a familiar landmark. But that was the problem. The whole place looked so similar, even the people who lived in the cathedral must always be getting lost.
They reached a junction. Two staircases spiraled downward on either side. Ren hesitated, then took the left.
Three Chosen guards stood waiting near the bottom with their swords drawn and their attention on the staircase.
Ren didn't even slow down.
He dropped to one knee mid-run, pushing hard with his resonance. "Push: Vault."
The blast launched him forward like a cannonball. He crashed into the first Chosen, driving his shoulder into the man's chest and knocking him backward into the others.
Lilith was already moving. Her soul threads swished through the air, and caught the neck of one of the Chosens mid-shout. And with a yank, she silenced him.
In a second, they were all dead, blood dripping down Freedom.
"This is it." Ren said with conviction. He recognized this place. From here, he could lead them to the underground prisons.
"Let's go." He said, and then they were running again.
As they ran, they met more Chosen, but they didn't even stop. Their swords carved through them, Thorn's sword lengthening ahead to take some unaware, and Elias even setting a few on fire.
Valen didn't even unsheathe his swords, running with them.
Before long, they were before the doors of the prison.
Ren skidded to a stop. He raised Freedom and sheathed it behind his back. Thorn raised a brow at that but said nothing.
Ren then turned to Lilith, giving her a nod. She stepped forward, giant claws made of soul energy reaching out from her outstretched hands.
It dug furrows into the thick steel as it gripped it and with a loud grating sound, tore it off the wall.
The air vibrated as a lot of the resonance defenses powered down as their closed loops were broken, with the removal of the door.
The group exchanged glances, and as one, they stepped inside.
Cells lined both walls, but it was the one at the very end that drew them. Its door was thicker. The air in front of it shimmered faintly, like a heat mirage.
That was the cell that held the Blood Chosen.
Ren took a step forward.
And that was when the ceiling exploded.
Stone rained down as a hole burst open above them. The shockwave knocked Elias and Thorn off their feet. Ren shielded his face. Dust and debris clouded everything.
Then a familiar voice filled the air.
"Took you long enough."
Vesper landed in the rubble like a god descending. Wings flared. His smile stretched too wide.
He stood tall, skin slick with blood, and his eyes glowing darkly.
"Terence Ross." He said, purring the word like it tasted sweet. "I promised I'd kill you. And you know how I hate breaking promises."
Ren raised his sword and Lilith moved to his side.
Vesper laughed and pulled something from his pocket. A jagged shard of glass, black as regret.
"Catch."
He tossed it lightly.
The shard hit the ground with a chime, and reality cracked.
A line tore through the air in front of Ren, splitting like broken glass. Light bent unnaturally around it. The crack grew, a black rift peeling open.
And with a slurping sound, Ren and Valen were sucked into it.
The rift sealed behind them, and the glass tinkled on the floor.
Lilith screamed.
Vesper turned to her with that same terrible grin.
"Now then," he whispered, "shall we dance?"
