Chapter 22 - Chaos in the Sanctum

The eruption of Commander Vorlag and his expansionist warriors shattered the fragile sanctity of the Outer Choir Chamber. The air, already thick with immense physical and psychic pressure, now crackled with raw aggression and the chaotic energy of the disrupted Rite. Below, the Leviathan's consciousness surged like a tsunami, its immense displeasure radiating outwards as waves of pure, crushing force that made the very stone beneath our feet tremble."Kill it!" Vorlag roared again, pointing a pressure trident directly at me. His warriors, fanatical and heavily armored, advanced, their own pressure fields coalescing around their weapons.High Priestess Thalassa moved with surprising speed for someone seemingly frail and ancient. A wave of cold, immense power radiated from her, slamming into the advancing warriors like a physical blow. It wasn't aggressive force, but the sheer weight of the abyss, momentarily pinning them in place. "Fools!" her mental voice thundered, laced with fury and desperation. *"You know not what you unleash! The balance is broken!"But Vorlag, driven by ambition and perhaps already partially mad from his attempts to harness the Leviathan's power, pushed through her pressure wave. "The only balance is our control, Priestess! The age of appeasement is over!" He lunged, not at me initially, but towards the central shaft, intending perhaps to confront the Leviathan directly or seize control of the failing Rite.Chaos erupted. The Choir members, caught between their sacred duty and the sudden violence, reacted instinctively. Some tried to reform their chant, desperately attempting to soothe the surging Leviathan, while others raised shimmering barriers of solidified pressure, trying to contain the conflict. Elara, who had been standing near the edge, melted back into the shadows, her expression grim – observing, as always.My mind raced. I was the target, the catalyst for this explosion. Vorlag's warriors were still focused on me, momentarily held but recovering quickly from Thalassa's initial blast. Thalassa herself was occupied trying to restrain Vorlag and prevent him from further provoking the entity in the shaft. The Leviathan's psychic pressure was becoming unbearable, threatening to shatter my consciousness.Fight? Flee? My resonance abilities felt pitiful against these armored warriors wielding pressure tridents. Fleeing seemed impossible, trapped in this chamber with enraged Krakenborn and an awakening god.My resonance sense, however, offered a different perspective amidst the chaos. I felt the surging power of the Leviathan, the desperate efforts of Thalassa and the loyal Choir members, the aggressive frequencies of Vorlag and his warriors, and the groaning strain of the Pillar beneath it all. And I felt the connection I had briefly established – the reinforcement I had provided to the Pillar's structure.Could I do it again? Not just reinforce, but actively manipulate the Pillar resonance against the attackers? It was incredibly risky. The Pillar wasn't a weapon. Using its fundamental frequency aggressively could cause catastrophic damage. But Vorlag's warriors were channeling the Leviathan's pressure, an energy fundamentally opposed to the Pillar's stability.As the first warrior broke free from Thalassa's pressure wave and charged towards me, trident leveled, I made a split-second decision. I focused my will, not on the warrior, but on the Pillar resonance flowing through the stone floor beneath him. Instead of reinforcing it, I created a sharp, localized disharmony, directly countering the frequency of the pressure field crackling around his trident.The effect was immediate and violent. The warrior cried out as his pressure field destabilized explosively, throwing him backward. The floor beneath him cracked, not from physical force, but from the conflicting resonance tearing it apart. It wasn't an attack on him, but a disruption of the energy he was wielding, using the Pillar's fundamental frequency as a counter-agent.It worked, but the backlash was intense. A wave of pain shot through me, and the Pillar itself seemed to groan in protest at this misuse of its harmony. Thalassa's mental gaze snapped towards me, filled with shock and warning.But there was no time for hesitation. Two more warriors were charging. I repeated the maneuver, focusing on the resonance of their pressure fields, creating localized disruptions in the Pillar frequency beneath them. One stumbled as his field flickered, his trident discharging harmlessly into the ceiling. The other was thrown aside as his field collapsed.This bought me moments, but drew the full attention of Vorlag, who had been momentarily checked by Thalassa near the shaft. Seeing his warriors thrown back by an unknown force originating from me, his eyes burned with renewed fury."The anomaly is a weapon!" he bellowed, abandoning his move towards the shaft and turning his attention fully on me. "A tool of the surface dwellers, sent to destroy us! I will crush you myself!"He raised his trident, gathering an immense amount of pressure. The air around him distorted, growing heavy, thick. This wasn't the controlled manipulation of the guards; this was raw, barely contained abyssal force, drawn directly from the Leviathan's surging anger.Thalassa cried out a warning, trying to intercept him, but she was still grappling with the psychic backlash from the shaft. I felt the crushing weight of Vorlag's attack coalescing, aimed directly at me. My resonance disruption trick wouldn't work against this overwhelming force.My mind flashed back to the escape from the Nexus Core, the spatial distortion, the tear in reality. Could I do it again? Here? With the Pillar already strained and the Leviathan raging? It was madness. It could tear the Sanctum apart, doom us all.But Vorlag's attack was coming, promising instant annihilation.Desperation clawed at me. I focused, not on the Pillar this time, but on the space directly in front of me, feeling for the subtle stresses, the points where reality itself felt thin under the immense pressure. I gathered my resonance, preparing to tear, to rupture, to create a shield or an escape, whatever the cost.Suddenly, a new resonance flooded the chamber. Cold, ancient, and filled with an intelligence that dwarfed even Thalassa's. It wasn't the raw, dreaming anger of the Leviathan from below. This came from the shaft, but felt… different. More focused. More aware.The crushing pressure Vorlag had gathered dissipated instantly. He froze, his eyes wide with terror, staring at the shaft. The attacking warriors halted, trembling. Even Thalassa went utterly still, her mental presence shrinking back.The chanting of the Choir ceased entirely. Silence fell, heavier and more terrifying than the chaos before.Then, the mental voice echoed, not just in my mind, but in the minds of everyone present, a voice that felt like the grinding of continents, the slow drift of abyssal currents, the infinite cold of the deep. It was the Leviathan. But it was awake.*"ENOUGH."The single word crushed down with the weight of eons, freezing thought, freezing action. The conflict ceased instantly, replaced by primal, instinctual fear. The god of the abyss had opened its eyes.