They jumped.
One by one, figures slipped over the cliff edge and vanished into the fog like shadows.
Eliza Park's coat flared behind her as gravity embraced her, wind howling past her ears. Her face remained unreadable, eyes narrowed against the white blur, her body cutting through the mist like a spear. Seconds passed like eternities, until the mist broke and the jagged terrain below came into view—an ocean of warped, cracked stone, glittering like scales under scattered sunlight.
She landed in a crouch, boots scraping against the ground, and stood with a breathless calm as the others descended around her.
Harper hit the ground next, knees bending, muttering a winded curse. "Do you always pick cliffs instead of doors, Liz?"
"Cheaper than elevators," Eliza replied, brushing dust off her gloves.
A third figure slammed into the ground with a soldier's precision—Mikhail, the silent Russian man mountain, adjusting his gun strap like it was just another Tuesday. Seth Wu tumbled down, rolling before springing up with a grin. "Ten out of ten landing. I stick it."
Kaede dropped last, the wind fluttering her pale-blue jacket as she scanned the terrain, glyph-laced gloves humming softly at her sides.
Ivana arrived not by fall, but impact.
Her armored boots cratered the earth when she landed, sending a shockwave that made pebbles skip. Her crimson braid whipped behind her like a war banner.
Harper glanced at the smoking spot beneath her feet. "Nice of you to make an entrance."
Ivana said nothing, her stoic face focused on the terrain below.
They stood on an uneven plateau, framed by jagged stone teeth that jutted from the ground like a fossilized monster's mouth. The mist clung to their ankles, and deeper still, the air smelled… old. Not musty. Ancient.
"So," Seth said, hands on hips, "where's the door? Trapdoor? Elevator button? Glowing rune? I'm open to anything that doesn't involve breaking my legs."
There was nothing obvious—just silent stone, contorted shapes half-swallowed by cracked soil and vine-like roots that moved slightly with the breeze.
Eliza walked forward, hands in pockets, her gaze dragging across the terrain. Deep in thought. Distant. Like someone chasing ghosts.
Harper frowned. She'd known Eliza too long to miss the signs.
"You're not telling us something."
"I told you what you needed," Eliza said, not looking back.
"No, you paid us what you needed," Harper corrected. "There's a difference."
The others stayed quiet, but they were listening. Mikhail's gaze swept the field. Kaede's glyphs dimmed. Even Seth stopped talking.
Eliza didn't respond.
They spent the next few minutes fanning out, searching for anything that might resemble an entrance. Glyphs. Hidden seams. Pressure plates. Nothing.
"Feels like this place's just... stone," Seth muttered. "No door. No magic signatures. Just rock."
Harper knelt near a particularly sharp outcropping. She ran a scanner across it—but it flickered, whined, then shut down.
"Something's not right," she murmured, placing her palm directly against the surface. It was warm.
"I thought this was just buried ruins," Kaede said quietly, approaching. "There's no mana field. Not even low-rank ambient pulses."
Harper turned to Eliza. "This terrain—it's fake."
Eliza tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the rock formation isn't naturally formed. It's like… a shell. Something's under us."
Seth's eyes widened. "You saying we're standing on the roof?"
"Exactly."
Mikhail stepped beside Harper. "Then we need a way in."
Harper nodded. "But this crust is dense. I can't break it with tech alone. It's absorbing frequency."
Mikhail grunted. "We could rig a charge."
"Too loud. JGSDF would pick up the signature in seconds."
That's when Ivana stepped forward.
No words.
No announcement.
She just walked past them, stopping at the flattest portion of the terrain. Her eyes studied it like it was a battlefield.
Harper blinked. "Uh, what're you—?"
Ivana inhaled once, cracked her knuckles—and then drove her fist into the earth.
The world answered with a scream.
The punch exploded downward with a thunderous boom, splitting the surface like shattering glass. Tremors ran through the plateau as the impact rippled in all directions. A red energy crackled from her knuckles, surging through the fracture like a pulse of divine wrath.
Chunks of stone blew away. A yawning void opened beneath their feet.
"Shit!" Harper shouted as the ground gave way.
They fell—again—but this time, into blackness.
Wind tore past them, mixed with dust and an ancient scent—copper, ash, something metallic. The tunnel wasn't natural; it had layers, hollowed deliberately. Glowing symbols flickered in the dark as they passed, like warnings etched in light.
And then—impact.
They landed hard but alive, the stone beneath them surprisingly even.
"Everyone good?" Eliza asked, already pushing up.
"Ask me again when my spine regains feeling," Harper groaned.
The others gathered, dusting off. The air was thick, motionless. It carried weight.
And then they saw them.
Six statues.
Lined in a half-circle before a sealed stone gate. Each one was roughly humanoid, ten feet tall, carved from obsidian.
But they were wrong.
Four of them had massive holes where their chests should've been—right through where a heart would sit. Clean, symmetrical, like the stone had been melted. The remaining two had no heads. Their necks ended in jagged breaks, as if torn off.
Seth took a step back. "What the hell kind of art gallery is this?"
Kaede whispered, "This... isn't a shrine. This is a trial chamber."
The stone above them—once shattered—began to hum. The fractures closed, stone flowing unnaturally until the ceiling sealed itself again with a groan of shifting weight.
They were locked in.
Ivana cracked her neck. "Good. Now it begins."