The moment we crossed the threshold, the stagnant, sulfurous rot of the cave vanished. In its place came a cold, sterile draft—air so pure it felt sharp, saturated with a pressure that made every breath a conscious struggle. We weren't merely entering a room; we were stepping into a subterranean cathedral of impossible proportions. The ceiling ascended hundreds of meters, swallowed by a thick, unnatural gloom, while the floor was a single expanse of polished obsidian, reflecting the void like a black, bottomless mirror.
"Gods..." Borjan whispered. His knuckles turned white as he gripped his hilt, his hand betraying a rhythmic tremor he couldn't suppress.
A hundred meters ahead, at the heart of the hall, sat a massive circular dais carved from bone-white stone. Floating above it was the objective: The Core. A crystalline orb the size of a man, pulsing with a rhythmic, celestial blue light. Voom... voom... Each pulse distorted the air around it, warping the light like heat shimmering off a desert road. The gravity near the dais was so dense that the atmosphere moved like water.
But the Core wasn't the nightmare. The nightmare was what stood guard.
Encircling the dais were six sentinels. Twenty-meter-tall titans forged from a light-absorbing, matte-black material that seemed to drink the very glow of the Core. Liquid gold veins pulsed through their colossal limbs, and their heads were featureless, eyeless helmets of grim design. In their hands, they held battle-axes the size of small buildings, the heads of the blades resting heavily on the obsidian floor, handles reaching up to their shoulders. Six silent mountains. Six immovable fortresses.
"Are they... even alive?" Private Karl's voice was a choked rasp. He took a staggering step back, his eyes locked on the giants in absolute terror.
I moved forward, my boots clicking rhythmically against the glass-like floor. Every survival instinct I possessed was screaming a single word: Death. "System. Analysis," I muttered, activating [Eyes of Sin: Level 1]. I expected to see energy flows, structural fractures, or weak joints. Anything.
The feedback was a cold slap to the face. [System: Target (Core Guardian).] [Composition: Compressed High-Density Matter.] [Physical Weaknesses: None.] [Warning: Power disparity is absolute. Direct engagement is suicidal.]
"No gaps in the armor," I whispered to myself. "They aren't wearing suits. They are the armor. Solid blocks of compressed matter."
Suddenly, the third soldier—a man whose name I hadn't bothered to learn—snapped. The silence, the pressure, the sheer scale of the threat broke his mind. "I'll take it!" he screamed, his voice cracking into hysteria. "They're just statues! I'll take the Core and we leave!"
Before anyone could move, he sprinted. He bolted across the obsidian floor, his boots skidding as he broke the invisible perimeter.
"Stop, you idiot!" Borjan roared.
It was too late. The moment the soldier crossed the line, the entire cathedral groaned with a sound like grinding tectonic plates. GRRRRRRRRSH.
The Guardian directly ahead of him didn't move with the sluggishness of a giant. It moved with a velocity that defied the laws of physics for its mass. It swung the colossal axe in a blur that the human eye could barely track.
THRRRRAAAAAAAKH!
It wasn't the sound of cutting flesh. It was the sound of an explosion. A massive shockwave of displaced air erupted from the point of impact. The obsidian floor beneath the blade didn't just crack; it disintegrated into fine powder. The soldier? He wasn't even a memory. He turned into a red mist, his atoms scattered into the dust in a fraction of a second. Deleted.
"No..." Karl sobbed, his sword clattering to the floor. "I don't want to die! I won't die here!" He spun around, sprinting back toward the massive doors we had entered through. "Open the door! Open it!"
The Guardian that had pulverized the first man didn't return to its stance. It tilted its eyeless head toward the fleeing Karl. It didn't chase. It simply raised its free hand and struck the air with an open palm—a violent, sweeping motion.
F-VOOOOOOM!
A projectile of condensed air, visible as a distortion in the atmosphere, tore through the hall. It hit Karl before he was halfway to the door. His small frame didn't stand a chance. He was launched into the air, his body slamming into the stone wall with a sickening crunch of every bone in his skeleton. He slid down, a mangled, lifeless heap of meat.
Silence returned, heavier than before. Only two remained. Me... and Captain Borjan.
Borjan was shaking, his face the color of ash, but he stood his ground. He drove his sword into the floor to steady himself, his breathing ragged. "You... you monster..." he called out to me, his voice dripping with despair but laced with a final, grim resolve. "My steel won't scratch them. Our magic is useless here." He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot from the atmospheric pressure. "Do you have a plan? Or do we die with some semblance of honor?"
I didn't answer immediately. I was watching the Guardians. All six were moving now, pivoting their massive bodies toward us. The orange glow in their chests shifted to a searing, predatory red. [System: Eradication intent detected.]
"Die with honor?" I let out a cold, sharp laugh, despite the cold sweat drenching my back. "Keep your honor for the grave, Captain. I plan on breathing."
I lunged forward suddenly, closing the gap toward the nearest Guardian. I triggered [Eyes of Sin: Level 1 - Frenzy] for a single heartbeat, pouring 100% of my strength into a single punch against the titan's shin.
BOOM!
The sound of bone hitting immovable stone echoed through the hall. My hand shattered. The pain was a white-hot jolt through my nervous system. The Guardian? It didn't even vibrate. It raised its massive foot slowly, prepared to grind me into the glass. If I hadn't rolled back at the last microsecond, I would have been a stain.
I retreated to Borjan's side, my shattered hand clicking and popping as it began the agonizing process of forced reconstruction. "Physical force is a joke," I hissed. "Their defense is absolute."
The six titans raised their axes in unison. The gloom of the ceiling reflected off the broad, curved blades. They were preparing for a synchronized strike—a collective blow that would cleanse the entire hall with a shockwave no one could dodge. Death was seconds away.
I reached into my pocket, feeling the cold, metallic surface of the Gravity Cube and the hilt of the Void Fang. I looked at Borjan.
"Captain!" I shouted over the low hum of the Guardians' energy. "Do you trust your King?"
Borjan looked at the falling axes, then back at me. "The King sent us here to die!" He spat blood onto the obsidian floor and raised his sword in a desperate, final stance. "I only trust my steel!"
"Good!" I pulled out the black cube. "Then run directly behind me... and don't stop until we're on the other side! We're going under them!"
The axes began their descent. The air began to tear. The sheer pressure was crushing us before the blades even hit. In that final, desperate moment, I slammed my thumb onto the activation trigger.