The air over Bastion City was still, choked with the ghosts of a war long ended. Blackened towers loomed like jagged teeth above the cracked streets, their skeletal remains groaning in the wind. Beneath their silent watch, Kael Drayven stepped cautiously over a collapsed bridge, the Ember Core pulsing faintly under his cloak.
Zira led the trio with silent focus, her rifle slung across her back, eyes scanning every shattered alley and scorched vehicle husk. Behind her, Shao Jinzhen walked with quiet reverence, tracing his fingers along symbols carved into broken walls. They weren't just ruins. They were tombs.
"This city saw the worst of the Rift Wars," Jinzhen murmured. "Where Embertech clashed with Voidspawn. Where dimensions bled into each other."
Kael could feel it. The air here was… heavier. Like a scream caught in time. Even the Ember within him stirred, uneasy.
They entered what was left of a courtyard — once a sanctuary, now overgrown with twisted flora and encased in static fog. Kael paused near a shattered fountain, its basin filled with dried blood and shattered bones. As he crouched, inspecting strange claw marks etched into the stone, Zira raised a fist.
"Movement."
From the mist, they came — shadows with too many limbs, eyes gleaming like broken glass. Voidspawn. Remnants of the Rift's corruption, still tethered to this reality.
Kael barely had time to shout before they were on them.
The first creature lunged, maw gaping with shifting teeth. Kael ignited his Emberfire in a controlled burst, searing the monster mid-air. It shrieked, collapsing in a heap of melting flesh.
Zira spun, firing precise shots that tore through two more. Shao summoned a spectral barrier, halting a swarm of tendrils that tried to ambush them from above.
"They're drawn to the Riftseal on you," Jinzhen shouted. "It marks you as both prey and portal."
Kael gritted his teeth, channeling energy through his core. Flames roared from his palms, a circle of fire forming around the group. But more kept coming.
Zira cursed. "There's too many!"
Kael's eyes flicked toward a partially sunken structure nearby — a tower split in half by a rift scar. It called to him.
"There!" he yelled. "We take cover in the ruins!"
They pushed forward, fire and bullets carving a path through the nightmare swarm. Kael covered the rear, scorching creatures as they lunged, until his limbs trembled and smoke poured from his sleeves.
Inside the ruins, the temperature dropped. The noise outside faded.
Kael collapsed near an ancient terminal, its interface flickering with glitchy glyphs. Zira slammed the door shut with a mechanized lock. Shao immediately began tracing wards along the entrance.
"Voidspawn can't fully cross sacred thresholds," he muttered. "This was once a temple… to the Lightbound Order."
Kael looked around. The cracked mosaics on the walls depicted warriors in ember-plate standing against black serpents and shattered moons. The temple's heart pulsed with a dormant energy — as if the ground remembered glory.
Zira knelt beside a console, brushing dust from its screen. "This was a command post during the last Rift incursion. The Syndicate tried to erase all trace of the Lightbound."
As Kael approached, something inside him pulled — the Ember Core syncing with the temple's energy. With a flash, the terminal activated, revealing a hidden passage behind the altar.
Jinzhen raised a brow. "Only someone Riftmarked and Emberborn could trigger such a seal."
They stepped inside.
The passage spiraled downward, lit by flickering flames that ignited at Kael's approach. At the end was a vast chamber — circular, adorned with crystal spires and old relics. In its center floated a black obelisk, humming with Rift energy.
Kael took a step forward, drawn by a whisper in his mind.
"The gate remembers. The Ember guides. The Void watches."
Zira touched his arm. "This… this is more than a ruin. It's a beacon."
Shao nodded slowly. "A forgotten sanctum. A place where Rift energy was once studied, not feared. Before the Syndicate turned it into a weapon."
Kael felt the energy thrum inside him — Ember and Void, in harmony for a moment. He reached out toward the obelisk… and it responded.
Visions exploded behind his eyes — a city torn apart by rifts, a girl's scream, Lyra reaching for him across a sea of shadows. He saw the Emberforge, hidden in the Fractured Spires. And a symbol — three interlocked rings burning in black fire.
He gasped, stepping back. Zira caught him.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"Answers," he said, voice hoarse. "And where we go next."
Outside, the Voidspawn clawed at the walls. But in here, beneath the forgotten stones of Bastion City, a new path had opened.
And Kael Drayven, Riftmarked and Emberborn, was ready to walk it.