They crested the final ridge, breath steaming in the cold air, and the black tower loomed ahead. It wasn't just tall — it stretched into the clouds, so sheer it seemed to pierce the sky. Its surface was the same obsidian glass as the plains, but it pulsed faintly with red veins, like blood trapped inside stone.
At its base stood a gate — a jagged arch of fused crystal, shards jutting like teeth.
Seris slowed. "Please tell me that gate opens politely."
Lucas gave her a flat look. "When has anything here been polite?"
---
As they approached, the ground near the gate began to ripple — as if the glass itself were melting. Figures emerged from it, rising smoothly until they stood at full height.
There were four of them.
Tall, armored in black glass from head to toe, each carried a spear tipped with serrated crystal. Their faces were featureless masks, glowing faintly from within.
"They don't look like they're here to welcome us," Martha muttered.
One of the sentinels tilted its head. The others followed in perfect sync. Then, without a word, they advanced.
---
Lucas drew his chaos blade, its energy flaring red and black. Seris unslung her crossbow, bolts already glowing with kinetic charge. Martha set her staff against the ground, runes lighting up along its shaft.
The first sentinel lunged, spear thrust flashing toward Lucas's chest. He deflected with a sharp twist of his blade, sparks showering from the impact. The thing didn't stagger — it simply pulled back and struck again, faster.
Behind him, Seris fired two bolts in quick succession. The first shattered harmlessly against a sentinel's chest. The second hit at the exact same spot, breaking through and splintering its armor — but the thing kept coming.
"They don't stop," she said through gritted teeth.
---
Martha finished a rapid incantation and slammed her staff down. A wave of blinding light erupted outward, forcing the sentinels back. The nearest one stumbled, its mask cracking slightly.
Lucas seized the moment, spinning low and cutting across its legs. The sentinel dropped to one knee, but instead of retreating, it grabbed its spear with both hands and swung upward in a wide arc. The blade scraped across Lucas's chestplate, leaving a glowing gouge.
"Alright," Lucas growled, "new rule — hit harder."
---
Seris switched to explosive bolts, each shot detonating on impact. Shards of molten glass sprayed the ground, forcing her to duck as one whizzed past her face.
Martha shifted tactics, channeling her magic into pinpoint bursts that hit the cracks Seris's bolts had made. The coordination worked — one sentinel's torso exploded into fragments, its body collapsing into the glass floor and melting away.
"Three left!" she shouted.
Lucas engaged the second sentinel directly, meeting its spear strikes with brutal parries. He stepped inside its guard, driving his chaos blade into its chest. Energy flared, the armor split, and the thing disintegrated in a hiss of steam.
---
The last two came at once. Seris rolled to avoid a spear sweep, firing a bolt upward into the attacker's chin. It reeled back, and Lucas finished it with a two-handed slash.
The final sentinel struck at Martha, its spear tip a blur — but she raised her staff and let the strike slide past before blasting it point-blank with a surge of raw force. Lucas darted in to finish it, shattering its mask.
---
Silence fell.
The gate of shards loomed above them, pulsing faintly now as if aware they had passed its test.
Seris reloaded her crossbow slowly. "If those were just the doormen… I'm scared to see what lives inside."
Lucas glanced at the still-distant giant, now picking its way through the molten plains toward them. "Then let's not stand around."
The gate shuddered, opening inward with a grinding sound, revealing a dark passage lit only by the red glow of veins running through the walls.
Lucas stepped forward. "Stay close. And whatever happens, don't touch the walls."