The chamber still echoed with the last shriek of the Split-Mind Wraith, but its ashes had barely scattered before the Iron Descent shifted again.
A deep metallic groan traveled through the floor.Pipes rattled overhead.Lights flickered violently, then died one by one.
Darkness swept across the spiraling walkways.
Aria held Elias upright by his arm, her blade pointed down toward the pit where more movement stirred.
His breathing was ragged.Unsteady.Too slow.
Kellan approached cautiously.
"He overextended," he said quietly."That wasn't a normal ability. That was something pulling from him. Hard."
Aria didn't look away from Elias' face.
"Ward. Stay awake."
His eyelids trembled.
Jarek stood a few meters back, pale and shaking.
"We… we have to get out. We have to go back. We need instructors. We need help—"
Aria snapped:
"Quiet."
Jarek flinched, clutching his arms.
Kellan lowered his voice.
"If we go back up, the way is unstable. If we go down…"
Aria cut him off.
"There is no going down."
Elias finally spoke—barely.
"…wrong."
Aria leaned closer.
"What's wrong?"
Elias didn't answer with words.
A wave of pressure rolled up from the pit—a pulse so heavy that the steel beneath them bent inward.
Jarek dropped instantly, covering his head.
Kellan staggered.
Aria held her ground, but even she felt her knees buckle for a heartbeat.
Elias, half-conscious as he was, absorbed the brunt of it.
His body jerked as if struck by lightning.His back arched.His hand clamped around Aria's wrist with unnatural force.
"WARD!"
His vision snapped open—
white.
Pure white.
The Threshold boiling under his skin, too much and too fast.
Aria tried to pry his hand off.
"Elias—let go! You're hurting me!"
He didn't respond.
Another pulse hit.
This one heavier.
The lights above them shattered.The railings cracked.The floor bent down toward the pit like gravity had thickened.
Kellan swore loudly.
"It's waking more of them—whatever you stirred up, Elias, it's calling everything in this floor!"
Jarek screamed:
"THERE—!"
Shapes crawled out of the pit.Small ones at first.Not humanoid.Not animals.
Shadows with limbs.Faceless things that reeked of old mana and dead worlds.
Dozens.
Aria gripped Elias tighter.
"Kellan—help me move him!"
"Where?! Every exit is blocked!"
Aria forced her voice steady.
"Then we carve a way out."
Jarek stumbled back until he hit a wall.
"We're dead… we're dead…"
And then he did something stupid.
He ran.
Not toward the exits.Not toward Aria.Not toward Elias.
He ran down one of the lower walkways—toward the crawling shadows.
"HEY! I'm over here! LEAVE ME ALONE—!"
Aria's heart stopped.
"JAREK—NO!"
The shadows turned toward him like moths to flame.
Kellan swore and sprinted after him.
Aria tried to follow—
But Elias' grip locked tighter.
His eyes were still open, still white, still burning.
"Ward—listen to me—focus—"
He whispered something she could barely hear.
"…don't… run…"
Aria stiffened.
"Ward… we're not dying here. You hear me? Stay awake."
Elias' body convulsed again.
And then—
Something deeper stirred.
Slow footsteps echoed above them.
Aria's head snapped upward.
On the highest walkway, emerging from the darkness, stood a towering humanoid shape—tall as three men, Its silhouette jagged, as if built from broken armor plates.
Multiple eyes lit up across its face—not gold,not grey,but a deep, predatory red.
Kellan, still running toward Jarek, froze mid-stride.
"…that's not a Devourer."
Jarek looked back and screamed.
Aria's blood went cold.
Elias whispered, barely conscious:
"…upper-floor guardian…"
Aria's eyes widened.
"What?"
Elias' voice shook.
"…this thing… shouldn't be here…"
The massive creature crouched.
The walkway cracked beneath its weight.
Aria's pulse spiked.
"WARD—WAKE UP—"
The creature dropped.
It fell three floors in a heartbeat, slamming into the chamber with such force that the entire structure shook.
Dust exploded outward.Metal bent.Lights shattered.
The guardian lifted its head.
Red eyes focused on the one presence radiating the strongest aura—
Elias.
Aria stepped in front of him.
"Over my dead body."
The guardian tilted its head.
Its voice was metallic and low:
"Accepted."
Aria gritted her teeth.
Kellan reached Jarek, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him back.
"MOVE, idiot! MOVE!"
The shadows swarmed after them, but Kellan fought through them with raw force and reckless speed.
The guardian took one step toward Elias.
One step.
That was enough.
The pressure crushed the air around them.
Elias' eyes snapped open—
white burning into black.
Aria felt something inside him break open again.
But before she could speak—
He whispered three words.
Calm.
Detached.
Something no cadet should ever be able to say with conviction:
"It's mine now."
The guardian froze.
Just for a breath.
Aria looked at Elias—the white fire in his eyes, the way the air warped around him.
She realized something terrifying.
He wasn't talking about the guardian.
He wasn't talking about the shadows.
He was talking about the depth itself.
Then Elias collapsed, unconscious again.
The guardian roared—
a sound strong enough to split metal—
and charged.
Aria raised her blade.
Kellan lunged to intercept.
Jarek screamed his lungs out.
And the Iron Descent…
woke all the way.