The gate opened inward.

And beyond it, the Fallen Gates revealed themselves in full.

King walked forward first, Vi a half step behind him. They crossed the threshold together, and the first thing that hit King was the scale of it , the sheer vertical enormity of the space. The outer approach had suggested something enormous, but standing inside the boundary now, looking ahead, the full picture assembled itself with clarity.

The Fallen Gates didn’t guard a ruin. They guarded a domain.

A vast stretch of barren ground extended before them, suspended high above the ground with nothing visible holding it there, floated the temple.

It was enormous. Black stone walls, angular in their architecture, carved from the same material as the gates themselves. The structure floated in perfect stillness, rotating so slowly the movement was almost imperceptible, its shadow cycling across the cracked ground below in a wide, steady arc.

And directly beneath the temple’s center, at ground level, a seal burned.

A perfect circle of red light, pressed flat against the earth. From the seal’s center, a column of force rose straight upward, invisible but tangible, the air above it distorted, pushing everything upward with relentless pressure, aimed directly at the base of the floating structure overhead.

King studied it for a moment, already knowing what it was. The seal was the only access point to the temple above. There was no staircase. No bridge. No other path.

"That’s our way up," King said.

Vi looked at the seal, then straight up at the floating temple, calculating the distance. "You’re serious."

"We stand on the seal and jump. Then the current carries the rest."

Vi looked at him. "And if we miss?"

"Nah, we don’t."

He took her hand and they walked across the ground toward the seal’s edge. Up close, the light from the inscriptions was warm against their skin, which was strange given everything else in this place radiated cold. The pressure column above was real. King could feel it pushing against him even standing at the perimeter, a firm, insistent force pressing upward against his jaw and the backs of his hands.

They stepped onto the seal together.

The inscriptions responded immediately, the outer rings accelerating their rotation while the inner ones brightened sharply. The pressure column intensified around them, and King felt his footing lighten.

"Ready?" he said.

"Ready," Vi answered.

They both jumped together.

The seal discharged beneath them the instant they left its surface, the updraft seizing them and launching them upward with controlled and staggering velocity. The ground fell away fast. The air howled around them, rushing past in a sustained roar, and King kept Vi’s hand locked in his as they rose, the temple above growing from a distant silhouette into something immediate and real.

They hit the base platform hard but clean, the updraft releasing them precisely at the structure’s underside where a narrow stone ledge circled the temple’s lowest edge. King landed and pulled Vi in close, steadying her as the force dispersed.

They stood on the ledge, pressed against the temple wall.

Above them, set into the black stone directly overhead, was a door. Tall and narrow. The door was sealed shut.

Vi’s hands charged with mana as she prepared a spell. King looked at her with a soft smile, then pushed.

They entered.

The chamber beyond was long and wide, lit by fire that burned in iron sconces along both walls, the flames deep red rather than orange, casting everything in a color that made the space look like the inside of a wound. The ceiling vaulted high. The floor was polished black stone.

And filling the chamber were people.

Robed figures, dozens of them, arranged in loose clusters and processional lines, moving in ritual patterns with their heads bowed. Some held offerings. Some held nothing. All of them wore the same grey-black vestments.

At the far end of the chamber, more figures knelt before something King couldn’t see clearly yet, their postures remained rigid and devotional.

Then, the nearest worshipper looked up.

The others followed within seconds, turning their heads one after another as awareness rippled through the chamber like a current.

Every ritual pattern stopped.

[AGGRO ACQUIRED]

The worshippers nearest to King moved first, stepping toward him with in a speed of fury. Their voices rose together, overlapping and building into a ragged chorus.

"Heretics..."

"Unclean... you dare set foot..."

"Blasphemers. Defilers of the holy ground..."

The words came in waves as the crowd pressed inward from multiple angles, the nearest bodies surged toward him and Vi with reaching arms and wild eyes.

Further back, the figures who had not moved —taller, stiller, their vestments marked with additional layers of inscription — raised both arms and began to chant. Their voices were low and synchronized, and something answered their hymns. Lightning gathered at their extended palms, crackling between their fingers in coiled arcs of white electricity.

Priests.

King wasn’t alarmed.

A construct shield materialized in front of them both without him lifting a finger, the wide hexagonal panel of layered translucent energy, dense and reinforced.

Kra-KTZZZ

The first bolt struck it dead center and dispersed harmlessly, the construct absorbing the impact without fracturing. A second bolt followed, deflected at an angle into the stone wall.

King pressed the shield forward and drove it into the crowd of worshippers, using it as a ram to push the nearest bodies back. Then he generated dozens of thin construct needles along the outer face. They launched in a single volley, crossing the chamber in straight lines.

The worshippers in the front cluster went down. The needles found the priests at the rear in the same breath, punching through their chants in a second that silenced three of them before the others adjusted their positioning.

The remaining priests scattered laterally, trying to break out of the needle’s line of sight and recalibrate. King advanced into the chamber, reforming the shield as mobile cover and cutting off their repositioning angles. Vi moved with him, staying in close formation.

They pushed deeper.

The worshippers did not stop coming. They filled in from behind as fast as King cleared the path ahead, their numbers seemingly endless, but their threat level remained low. King dispatched them methodically, needles and construct strikes, maintaining forward momentum rather than getting drawn into extended exchanges.

The priests required more attention, their lightning coordinated better than the worshippers’ frenzied charges, but King had their patterns read within the second exchange and neutralized each remaining cluster before they could build into something dangerous.

[WORSHIPER KILLED +200 RUNES]

[PRIEST KILLED +300 RUNES]

The count numbered at the edge of his vision.

The chamber ended at a closed door.

King stopped in front of it, listening. Silence on the other side. He looked at Vi, who nodded once. He pushed the door open and stepped through.

The room beyond was smaller. Circular. The walls were bare black stone except for seven vertical tears that hung suspended in the air at equal intervals around the circumference, each one looked like a ragged slit in reality itself, the edges glowing with a faint light.

Through each tear, something was visible, or almost visible, depth without content, a sense of vast distance with no reference point.

At the center of the room, kneeling on the bare stone floor with both arms extended outward and his chin lifted toward the floating tears, was a man.

His vestments were heavier than the priests in the outer chamber, layered and elaborately inscribed, every inch of the fabric marked with script. He was motionless, his posture locked in worship so absolute his body had taken on the character of a statue.

Above his head, a name tag materialized.

[HIGH PRIEST HENOCH]

King stepped into the room and Henoch rose.

[CUTSCENE ENGAGED]

He straightened from his kneeling position without urgency. Like someone who had been expecting this moment and had decided exactly how he intended to meet it. He turned to face King and Vi, and his expression held no fear. Only contempt.

"You killed my congregation," Henoch said.

"Now, know the judgement of ARANDIEL: Fallen Star of Veils"

Henoch raised both arms.

And the cutscene ended.

Henoch did not wait. He snapped his fingers. A tiny, blinding spark of lightning shot into the stone floor, not at King. The current traveled through patterns that surfaced on the floor, splitting into five separate paths. It erupted right around their feet in a cage of blue plasma.

King did not even blink. He slammed his boot down. A wave of solid construct surged from the ground. Immediately dispersing the lightning cage whole, grounding the electricity instantly.

Two construct spears then formed above King, shooting straight for Henoch’s chest.

Henoch threw himself backward, hastily retreating continuously while chanting a different hymn.

Blue seals began forming at the ceiling, crackling with lightning.

King looked up and raised one hand. And a transparent, construct shield manifested around both of them.

Lightning bolts descended from the seals, striking everything beneath for a total of thirty seconds.

King closed his fist. Strengthening the shield, as it held against the lightning bolts without even cracking.

Immediately the spell was done, King deactivated the construct shield, his form blurring in an instant.

He reappeared right in front of the high priest, grabbing him by the throat and snapping it in one single motion.

SNAP

The priest collapsed.

DING.

[HIGH PRIEST HENOCH DEFEATED]

[+3,000 Runes]

King dismissed the notification and walked to where Henoch had fallen. He crouched beside the body, studying the vestments, then wrapped his free arm under the priest’s torso and lifted him from the ground.

Vi moved toward him. "What are you doing?" she asked

"We need him," King responded.

"He’s dead."

"I know." King adjusted his grip and straightened, holding the body against his side. "There are seven veils in this room. And they could all lead anywhere, without a guide marker, stepping through could send you into the void. A place of no return."

"Henoch was the active High priest here. His body carries the resonance bound to Arandiel, that is the key to finding him."

[SANCTUM OF VEILS]