Part 3: The Girl Speaks
She woke with a gasp that wasn't fear.
It was release.
Siora crouched beside her instantly, murmuring a slow calming chant, one hand hovering just above the girl's chest, where the threads of magical trauma still lingered like a faded brand.
Yuji watched from across the room, arms folded.
Nina blinked slowly.
Her voice was rough. Like bark. Like someone had buried it and it had to climb out.
"…am I dead?"
"No," Siora said gently. "You're safe."
Nina turned her head.
Saw Yuji.
Stopped breathing for just a second.
"Your… core," she whispered. "It screams."
Yuji stepped closer, slowly. "Do you remember what they did to you?"
She flinched.
Then nodded.
"They used me to map decay paths. I was tied to a lattice grid… each cell had a different kind of death. War-dead. Stillbirth. Rot."
Sylvia swore under her breath.
"They said my body could hold more kinds of pain than normal. Said I was compatible."
Sacha clenched her fists. "With what?"
Nina looked up, eyes wide. "With a piece of it."
"Of what?" Yuji asked.
"…of the Lich King."
The room went still.
Amelia raised an eyebrow. "You're saying they have a fragment?"
Nina shook her head. "Not yet. But they're gathering for it. They called Ash Spire a refinery. A test site. The real project is still hidden."
Siora spoke quietly. "Where?"
Nina closed her eyes. "A place they called the Cathedral of Succession. It doesn't exist on maps. It's not built above ground."
Yuji's voice was soft, but sharp. "Then where?"
"…inside something old. Buried. Wrapped in roots and regret. A divine husk, they said."
Amelia's smile faded.
"Godbones," she whispered.
Siora nodded grimly. "There's a buried titan corpse beneath the forest near Holgaris. Thousands of years old. We thought it was dormant."
Yuji straightened.
"And now they're building a cathedral inside it."
Nina's eyes opened again.
"They're going to seed it… with the fragment. And when it hatches…"
Yuji already knew.
"It won't be a Lich King. It'll be a Lich God."
Part 4: Sinners and Stormwalkers
They didn't wait until nightfall.
Too risky.
By late afternoon, the Church had doubled guard posts and begun random identity checks in the southern district. Glyph banners bearing Yuji's twisted Fertility mark hung at every gate—labeled "corruption sigils."
Even the commoners now whispered.
"They're calling you a blight," Siora said quietly.
Yuji nodded. "Then we go underground."
Sacha led them through the spice market—past the vendor stalls, behind the burned-out winehouse—into a sealed grate, hidden under a floor of false bricks. She'd scoped it during a brawl weeks ago.
"Veilguard's old sewer system links to pre-empire aqueducts," she said. "Dead nobles used to sneak out this way during plagues."
The gate opened with a groan like a coughing corpse.
The tunnel swallowed them.
For an hour they moved in near-darkness—Amelia's faint bloodlight the only illumination. Sylvia scouted ahead in silence. Yuji carried Nina. Siora monitored the mana pressure in case of arcane traps.
Then the air changed.
It got sharp.
And metallic.
Sacha spun. "They're here."
From behind: five shapes. Tall. Armored. Moving without sound.
Stormwalkers.
Church-sanctioned mercenary enforcers. Each enhanced by long-dead saint relics, grafted into bone or soul. Not human. Not holy.
The first hurled a blade that ricocheted off the stone and curved mid-air—Amelia deflected it with a single finger and hissed.
Yuji passed Nina to Siora. "Run."
He turned to face the Stormwalkers.
The second charged. Its gauntlets glowed with purification sigils—blazing like white fire.
Yuji met it head-on, mana flaring.
Not in bloom.
In burst.
His aura surged—Fertility channeled into impact. Not growth. Not grace. Just raw, living power. He punched the ground. Roots erupted—twisted, fast, thorned.
The tunnel caved.
Stone collapsed. Water surged.
Siora screamed. "Yuji!"
The wave came hard—swallowed the pursuers, smashed against the party. They tumbled through the dark—torn through sewer lines and broken tiles—before exploding into the floodplain just outside the city wall.
They coughed, shivered, crawled from the water.
Yuji staggered up.
Nina was alive.
But behind them…
People were screaming.
A part of the city wall had collapsed.
Civilians injured. Maybe worse.
Sylvia looked at him.
No blame.
Just understanding.
"You didn't mean to."
Yuji's jaw clenched.
"But I did it anyway."