The descent began with silence.
Lucien stood aboard the Nyxosian drop vessel as it broke through Earth's upper atmosphere. His eyes remained locked on the faint blue sphere below, its surface unfamiliar yet painfully intimate. The Earth he once ruled from the shadows had changed, rebuilt by new empires and new tyrants—his brother among them.
He clenched the hilt of the reforged Soulsteel blade, now pulsing faintly with the flame of the Forge. The runes etched into his skin still ached from the ritual. Each one a memory. Each one a curse.
"Five minutes until breach," Kaelis said from behind the console, her voice calm. "Coordinates locked. Gate location confirmed beneath the ruins of Virelux City."
Isla looked up from her seat across him, checking her weapon with cold efficiency. "So this is the place where your brother built his throne?"
Lucien nodded. "It was once a sanctuary. Now it's a prison—one layered in illusions, traps, and blood contracts."
"And the key?"
"It's buried under everything I used to be."
---
The drop vessel landed with the weight of a god's judgment. Dust and ash rose into the air as the trio stepped out into the dead city. Skyscrapers leaned like broken bones, their glass eyes empty. Nature had tried to reclaim the land—but something darker had kept it poisoned. Static danced in the air. Ghost echoes.
"This place feels wrong," Isla muttered.
Kaelis knelt, placing her palm on the ground. "Wards. Dozens of them. Blood-anchored. And old."
Lucien exhaled. "My doing. A lifetime ago."
They advanced slowly into the core of the ruin. At the center stood what remained of the Hall of Monarchs—once the seat of underground power, now just skeletal walls and scorched marble.
Lucien approached the throne dais. It was cracked, stained with old blood. His blood.
He raised his hand. The runes on his chest ignited.
The floor split open with a metallic shriek, revealing a staircase carved into the earth, glowing with forgotten sigils.
"The first gate," he said. "It's down there."
---
They descended into the tomb of secrets.
The passage was tight, the air growing colder with each step. Memories scraped at Lucien's mind—flashes of the past, pain buried deep, voices screaming his name, pleading for mercy. He shook them off. He had no time for ghosts.
At the bottom, a circular chamber awaited. In its center stood a monolith of obsidian etched in gold, floating slightly above a pool of stilled blood.
Kaelis stepped back. "A soul lock."
"More than that," Lucien said. "This is where I died."
Isla stepped beside him, watching his expression darken. "How do we unlock it?"
Lucien unsheathed his dagger and sliced his palm. He pressed his hand to the monolith.
A scream echoed through the chamber—not from a person, but from the stone itself. It cracked open, and a blinding light poured from within. The room shook. Energy lashed out. Symbols seared the walls.
And in the center, floating amid it all, was a crystal fragment the size of a heart.
Lucien took it in his hand.
The vision hit instantly.
---
He saw himself—years ago. Standing beside his brother, the two of them identical in power, yet divided by ambition. He saw the betrayal—the council's vote to sacrifice Lucien for the Syndicate's loyalty. He saw the moment his brother took the dagger meant to kill him and used it to cut his soul instead.
"You were never meant to return," the vision said. "But you always do."
Lucien came back to the present, breathing hard.
Kaelis steadied him. "What did you see?"
"Proof," he said. "My brother's blood bound this gate. But now, so does mine."
Isla looked toward the stairs. "Then it's open?"
Lucien looked up as the chamber walls began to shift, revealing an ancient passage leading deeper beneath Earth.
"It's open," he said, voice low.
"And we're not alone anymore."
From the shadows, footsteps echoed.
The gate had awakened—and so had those sworn to guard it.