The map on the table pulsed red.
Sector 3's blueprint burned slowly into view—an unfinished layout of a towering facility labeled: Project Sanctum-Null.
Kaien stared at it. Tall walls. Divine seals. Energy barriers etched in holy script. Designed not just to contain bodies, but to erase souls.
A god-forged oubliette.
"They call it a sanctum," Liora muttered, arms crossed. "But it's a slaughterhouse."
Arden nodded grimly. "No one walks out of there. No one even remembers who was taken."
"And they're building it right in the heart of Celestis," Tenrai added. "Where the Order thinks no one will dare strike."
Kaien's fingers twitched. Fellchain, wrapped and resting against his back, pulsed faintly like it wanted in.
"What's the timeline?" Kaien asked.
"Three nights," Arden said. "Before they activate the first ring of divine locks. After that, even you won't be able to cut through."
Kaien looked around. The rebel war room flickered under candlelight and broken tech.
"Then we bring it down before they finish."
---
Meanwhile – Sanctum-Null Construction Perimeter
Lightning cracked across the cloudline. On a floating spire high above the half-built prison, a man stood in perfect stillness.
Draped in white and crimson robes, his face covered by a jagged silver mask.
Two divine knights knelt behind him.
"My Lord Zevek," one whispered. "Scouts have confirmed rebel activity in Sectors 5 through 9. The boy is among them."
The masked man didn't respond immediately.
The wind coiled around him like a leash he controlled.
Then, in a voice that felt like hollow thunder:
"Kaien Valis… the Heavenbreaker."
The name rolled off his tongue with clinical disgust.
Salen Zevek turned slightly, revealing eyes beneath his mask—glowing with glyphs, swirling with godlight.
"He's not the first to rebel. But he will be the last."
The knight bowed his head.
"What are your orders?"
Zevek raised a single hand.
The skies opened like a wound.
A celestial glyph, massive and pulsing, bloomed above the prison site.
"Begin the Rite of Absolute Binding," he said. "Let's see if the boy dares to walk into my judgment."
---
Ashcloak Hideout – Three Hours Before Infiltration
Kaien knelt before the Forge-Room altar.
Liora walked in, arms full of gear. "Still breathing?"
He opened one eye.
"Barely."
She smirked and tossed him a reinforced cloak—dark obsidian mesh lined with soul-thread.
"Custom-made. Light-bending weave. Should help with stealth."
He ran a hand over it. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," she said, then paused.
"I meant—for not hesitating back there. That kid… his name was Mavin. I found his sister's photo in his pocket. She was taken into a 'sanctum' last year."
Kaien's gaze darkened. "We're getting her back."
"You don't even know where she is."
"We'll find her," he said, rising. "After we level the place they're calling a sanctum."
---
Nightfall – Operation Burn Sanctum
The plan was chaos in layers.
Kaien, Liora, and two Ashcloak elites—Varn and Suri—would slip in through the maintenance tunnel under Sector 3. Tenrai would lead a diversion team to trigger alarms at the east ridge. Arden handled overwatch and exfil routes.
Nothing fancy.
Just fire.
---
They breached at midnight.
Sliding through water-stained tunnels, Kaien's senses sharpened. Divine pressure loomed like smog.
Fellchain vibrated faintly.
"Feel that?" he whispered.
Suri nodded. "Yeah. Like walking into prayer."
They reached a steel hatch. Beyond it: the core sanctum chamber, unfinished but active.
Inside floated a massive glowing obelisk—etched in celestial glyphs, anchored by chained seraphs who whispered in their sleep.
Divine batteries.
Liora winced. "They're powering the seals with angelic minds…"
Kaien's grip on Fellchain tightened.
"Let's shut it down."
---
But it was already too late.
The obelisk flared—and so did the shadows behind it.
Out stepped Salen Zevek.
Flanked by two mechanized seraphs, he hovered above the floor, unblinking.
"You brought the weapon," Zevek said, gazing at Fellchain. "Good."
Kaien raised the blade. "And you brought your face. Bad call."
Zevek chuckled.
The air behind him shattered like glass—revealing a pocket rift, a distortion of reality itself. From it, black hands clawed at the edges.
"Abyssal souls," Zevek said. "Your blade feeds on them, does it not? I brought a feast."
He unleashed them.
---
Kaien surged forward. Fellchain blazed with red flame, chains lashing outward.
Liora shot suppressor rounds into the dark spirits, Suri warded the entrance with elemental glyphs, Varn flung a gravity disc to distort the field.
It was war.
And Zevek watched with folded arms, studying every move.
Kaien clashed with the first of the summoned shadows—his blade howled, cleaving the twisted form in half. But they kept coming. Dozens.
"This is a test," Liora yelled.
"No," Kaien gritted. "It's a message."
Zevek finally stepped in.
"Enough."
With one motion, he stilled the room.
A divine lockdown—an advanced glyph field that froze movement in place. Suri fell first, encased in glasslight. Varn dropped to his knees, screaming.
Only Kaien remained moving—barely.
Fellchain resisted the lockdown, glowing hot.
"Interesting," Zevek murmured. "The chain rejects obedience."
Kaien took a single step forward. His muscles tore. Blood leaked from his eyes.
But he moved.
"I… don't… kneel."
Zevek raised his hand.
A divine lance materialized—shimmering, infused with judgment.
"Then fall."
He hurled it.
Kaien swung Fellchain upward.
The clash sent a shockwave across the prison chamber.
The lance shattered.
Kaien collapsed to one knee, coughing blood.
Zevek tilted his head.
"You are not ready to carry the sins of this world."
Kaien smirked through the blood.
"I'm not carrying it. I'm setting it on fire."
Then he triggered the glyph bomb hidden on Suri's belt.
BOOM.
---
Later – Ashcloak Extraction Point
Kaien limped from the smoke, Liora under one arm. Varn dragged Suri behind them, all four bruised but breathing.
The prison behind them collapsed in flames.
From the shadows of a broken spire, Zevek watched.
His mask cracked slightly.
"Curious," he whispered. "You're more than the chain. You're a storm."
He turned and walked back into the divine realm.
---