Wind screamed past Riven's ears as the cliff edge buckled behind him. Aether flared from his soles as he twisted mid-air, Shard Stepping just in time to blink onto a spiraling ledge below. Dust and stone fragments rained around him—remnants of the explosion that had carved a chunk out of the path.
He exhaled sharply. They're getting bolder.
Aeris landed beside him, her boots glowing faintly with storm-glyphs. Her braid whipped in the wind as she glanced back up toward the smoldering ridge.
"They knew exactly where to strike," she said. "We're being watched."
"I can feel them," Riven muttered, his glyph-core vibrating with a sharp chill. He turned toward the southern gorge. "Three—maybe four. Ouro Seraphim signatures."
A shriek tore through the wind as one of the masked attackers lunged down from above. His limbs shimmered with serrated energy, glyphs stitched across his body in the Ouro cult's spiraling geometry. Aeris responded instantly—lightning blooming around her fist as she slammed it into the assailant's chest mid-air. The impact cracked the cliffside and sent the cultist flying into the rocks below.
More figures emerged from behind the upper ridges—silent, fast, coordinated. The Ouro Seraphim weren't just testing them anymore. This was a strike.
Riven flared his Shard Step, darting between two of them as they lunged. One grazed his shoulder with a jagged edge of kinetic magic—a glyph-sling tuned to burst on impact. Riven's coat burned briefly before he twisted midair and blinked behind the attacker, driving his arc-blade through the glyph etched between their shoulder blades.
The attacker convulsed, then stilled. Riven pulled his blade free, panting.
"Veyr was right," Aeris called from behind a broken spire, glyphs swirling around her wrist. "They're forcing the Vault seals."
Below them, nestled in the jagged ravine, the Spiral Vault pulsed with faint golden chains—visible even from this distance. Faint glyph-circles rotated around the stone doors. The seals looked frayed, as if something within had begun to stir.
Riven narrowed his eyes. The Sealed One...
Just then, a deeper presence filled the air—something primal and cold. Riven's glyph-core pulsed like a heart skipping a beat. A new figure descended from above, cloaked in white and gold with a crescent mask etched in blood-silver. He didn't move with the others.
"Another Seraphim?" Aeris whispered, wary.
"No," Riven said, voice low. "That one's different."
The figure hovered above the cliffside without wings or glyph-light. He raised one hand. The seals on the Vault cracked slightly in response, threads of glyph-light uncoiling into the sky.
"You interfere with rebirth," the masked figure intoned. His voice reverberated like distant thunder. "Step aside, or be folded into the next dream."
Before Riven could respond, the figure flicked a finger.
A wave of pressure crushed down on them.
Riven's knees buckled. Aeris grunted beside him. The air itself rippled with invisible force, distorting the cliff walls. Riven barely managed to anchor himself by stabbing his arc-blade into the rock and Shard Stepping away from the pressure wave. Aeris followed with a glyph-jump, lightning flaring from her legs.
They landed breathless on a lower ledge.
"That's not just glyphwork," Aeris hissed. "That's...something older."
"Sealed glyph logic," Riven realized, eyes wide. "He's using the Vault's bindings as a weapon."
Above them, the masked figure's hand began inscribing symbols in the air—seals that bent and wove around the Spiral Vault itself. Each one peeled more power from the prison.
Riven's heart pounded. "We can't let him finish."
"But if we attack now—" Aeris started.
"We'll shatter the Vault." Riven nodded grimly. "Which means we've got to hit him before the glyph-line finishes. Fast."
They moved as one. Aeris arced around left, her glyphs forming a barrier net. Riven Shard Stepped directly toward the masked figure, blade ready, pushing through the crushing weight. As he drew close, the figure finally turned to face him fully.
"You are late," the voice whispered, almost sad.
Then the glyph-thread snapped.
The seal shattered behind them.
And the Vault began to open.