Kael felt her before he saw her.
It was not blood.
It was disturbance.
The cavern's pressure shifted subtly, not as a surge or collapse, but as a ripple moving against the natural flow of the underground domain. Stone that had been still for ages vibrated faintly, reacting to a presence that did not belong.
Kael stopped mid-step.
His bones responded instantly, settling his stance, distributing weight without conscious effort. The warmth within him stilled, not suppressed, but alert.
Someone had entered the domain.
And they were not being rejected.
That alone was wrong.
He moved quietly toward the source, senses stretched outward through bone and blood alike. The deeper he went, the clearer it became. The presence was singular, focused, moving with purpose rather than caution.
Kael emerged into a wide chamber partially collapsed from heaven's earlier pressure. Broken pillars lay scattered across the floor like fallen ribs, yet at the chamber's center stood a lone figure.
A woman.
She wore light armor reinforced at the joints, scarred and repaired countless times. A long spear rested against her shoulder, its shaft dull and unadorned, yet radiating a pressure that made the air around it feel tighter.
She was waiting.
Kael did not step fully into the open.
"You are far from where you should be," he said calmly.
The woman turned her head slowly, eyes sharp and amused.
"And you are far from where heaven thinks you are," she replied.
She smiled faintly.
"Kael."
His bones hummed.
Not danger.
Recognition.
"You know my name," Kael said.
"I know many names," she answered. "Yours simply became interesting faster than most."
Kael stepped into the chamber fully, posture relaxed but ready. "Who are you?"
She planted the butt of her spear against the stone floor.
"My name is Seris," she said. "I walk for myself. That tends to upset heaven."
Kael studied her carefully.
Her blood was strange.
Dense, refined, but threaded with resistance patterns that reminded him of reinforced structures rather than cultivated flow. It was not devil law.
Nor was it heaven's.
"You should not be able to enter this place," Kael said. "The forge rejects outsiders."
Seris shrugged lightly. "It rejects those who submit to pressure."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"That sounds like something you practiced."
She grinned. "Long enough to be tired of kneeling."
The cavern responded to her presence at last.
Crimson lines flared faintly across the walls, symbols rearranging as the domain evaluated her. Kael felt the pressure spike briefly, then settle again.
Acceptance.
Partial.
Seris noticed it too.
"Well," she said lightly, "that is better than last time."
Kael's brow furrowed. "You have been here before."
"Not here," she corrected. "Somewhere similar. Heaven buried more than one mistake."
Silence stretched.
Kael's Sovereign Seed stirred faintly, reacting to her words.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
Seris's expression grew more serious.
"Because heaven just sealed the upper ruins," she said. "And because you are running out of time."
Kael felt it then.
The forge.
The deep pressure that had been constant since his descent was changing, becoming unstable. Heaven's suppression had not ended. It had adapted.
"They are not done," Seris continued. "They never are. When pressure fails, they isolate. When isolation fails, they collapse everything involved."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"So this place will not hold."
"No," Seris replied. "It will delay. But eventually they will bury it so deeply that nothing escapes."
Kael looked back toward the deeper forge corridors.
Bone Forging was not complete.
Structural Breathing stabilized him, but there were layers left unfinished. If he stayed, he could reinforce further. Gain more resistance. Perhaps enough to withstand direct suppression.
If he left now, he would survive.
But incomplete.
"You have a choice," Seris said quietly, as if reading his thoughts. "Finish the forge and be sealed with it. Or leave early and carry what you have into the open world."
Kael exhaled slowly.
"And if I leave?"
Seris met his gaze. "Heaven will notice. Fully. They will mark you as an active anomaly."
"And if I stay?"
"You will become a relic," she replied. "Stable. Powerful. Useless."
Kael laughed softly.
"That is not much of a choice."
Seris smiled faintly. "It never is."
The cavern trembled again.
This time harder.
Dust rained from the ceiling as pressure pressed downward in slow, grinding pulses. Kael felt it clearly now, pressure vectors shifting as heaven searched for structural weaknesses.
"They are mapping it," Seris said. "Once they finish, they will collapse everything above and below simultaneously."
Kael closed his eyes briefly.
Azrael's words echoed in his mind.
Devils cannot survive divided.
He opened his eyes.
"If I leave," he said, "I leave with intent."
Seris nodded. "Good. Wandering gets people killed."
Kael turned toward the deeper forge one last time.
He felt it.
The promise of completion.
The certainty of greater resistance.
But also the weight of stone and silence.
Foundations did not move.
Sovereigns did.
Kael faced Seris again.
"You are not here out of kindness," he said.
She snorted softly. "Of course not."
"What do you want?"
"To see what you become," she replied honestly. "And to ensure heaven does not erase another variable before it matters."
Kael tilted his head. "You oppose heaven."
"I oppose inevitability," Seris corrected. "Heaven just happens to believe it owns it."
The cavern shook again, stronger this time.
Cracks raced across the walls, ancient stone groaning as suppression intensified.
Time was gone.
Kael made his decision.
"I will leave," he said calmly. "Incomplete. But mobile."
The Sovereign Seed pulsed faintly, as if acknowledging the choice.
Seris smiled.
"Good," she said. "Then you are already more dangerous than they think."
A corridor to the upper layers split open violently as ancient systems responded to Kael's intent. The path was unstable, partially collapsed, yet passable.
Seris took a step back.
"I cannot follow you further," she said. "This place rejects me the deeper it destabilizes."
Kael nodded. "Then we part here."
"For now," Seris replied.
She lifted her spear in a brief salute.
"Do not disappoint me, Kael."
He met her gaze steadily.
"I do not intend to."
Kael stepped into the corridor as the forge groaned in protest.
Behind him, Seris watched as the devil-born anomaly walked away from foundations meant to last forever.
Ahead of him lay a world that would not forgive incomplete preparation.
Above him, heaven adjusted its calculations.
The forge would collapse.
The devil would escape.
And the next time heaven pressed down, Kael would not be underground.
He would be standing where the weight landed.