Date: February 12, 542 years since the Fall of Zanra the Dishonored.
Passing through the endless obsidian corridors, the Seventh Special Detachment emerged into a space whose scale silenced even the most seasoned knights. The hall of the Temple of True Equilibrium was colossal. Its dome, supported by five titanic arches, soared so high that among the interweavings of ancient beams, real mist swirled.
The hall was empty. There were no piles of gold, no racks of weapons, no altars. Only a floor as smooth as a mirror, made of dark-grey stone, on which not a speck of dust had accumulated over the centuries. In the very center of this space, directly under the apex of the dome, an object floated, capturing the gaze of all twenty men.
It was a Gate.
A huge ring of an unknown material, resembling frozen smoke, slowly rotated around its axis. Inside the ring, space was not just distorted—it was absent. There was only a shimmering silvery veil, from which emanated a barely audible hum, vibrating in the very structure of the knights' bones.
"There's nothing here..." Elwin whispered, looking around the empty hall. "Where is the Relic? Where are the treasures for which mercenaries from across the continent are flocking here?"
Grak the Axe took a few steps forward, and the sound of his steps echoed a thousand times through the hall. The commander stopped at the very edge of the platform on which the Gate floated.
"The Relic isn't lying on the floor, Elwin," Grak boomed. His voice had become unusually serious. "If Zanra the Dishonored truly left something important here, he wouldn't have put it on display. This Gate is the only way forward."
Kaedan approached closer. His Unbreakable Armor passively responded to the proximity of the artifact; the stone greaves and vambraces began to emit a faint warmth. The young man felt a colossal energy hidden behind the silvery veil. But it was a "locked" power, waiting its hour.
Iskon stood at the edge of the Gate, studying it with his cold, analytical gaze. His Scaling Spirit trembled finely, reacting to the spatial distortions.
"Commander, I don't sense an exit point," Iskon said. "This isn't an ordinary transition between rooms. This structure cuts through the very fabric of the world. The competitors, whose tracks we saw, definitely went through there. But where—unknown."
Grak the Axe was silent for several minutes, peering into the silvery veil. As a Herald, he felt danger more acutely than the others. He understood that beyond this threshold, the Order's rules might cease to apply. But to retreat now would mean to give Zanra's legacy into the hands of enemies whose energy was directed solely towards destruction.
"We have no choice," Grak turned to the detachment. "We cannot allow mercenaries or the legions of Alvost to find the Relic first. The Temple of True Equilibrium demands decisiveness."
The commander unsheathed his legendary axe, and the blade of the weapon blazed with pure white light. "Listen to my command! Everyone check your gear and strengthen your inner channels. We enter in a single formation. Kaedan, Iskon—vanguard with me. The others—close the circle. Whatever awaits us on the other side, we will meet it as the Seventh Detachment of the Order of Order!"
The knights instantly reformed. Kaedan stood to Grak's right, feeling his cuirass fit snugly against his body, and his energy filled every muscle. Beside him, Iskon froze, his shield with its spike raised in a combat position.
"On the count of three," Grak commanded. "One... two... THREE!"
The detachment, as one man, stepped into the silvery veil. In that same instant, the silence of the hall exploded with a deafening ring, and the reality around the knights turned into a kaleidoscope of light and shadow. Kaedan felt some unknown force seize him, stretching his body and will to the limit. His Armor groaned under the load, and millions of sparks flashed before his eyes.
The last thing he heard before consciousness faded for a moment was Liana's muffled cry and Iskon's cold, calm voice: "Hold onto the structure!"
And then darkness fell, and the Temple of True Equilibrium began its game of redistributing power.