Elias intervenes — and is instantly marked as a heretic-in-waiting. The ceremony collapses into fire and shouting. The guards open flame. Elias is forced to flee through the chapel catacombs, using chakra-fueled movement and Tree-Walking to escape the sanctum. All the while, the System watches — and waits for him to fall again.
------
The first flamer hissed.
Elias didn't wait.
His hand snapped to his knife, and in the same motion, his chakra surged to his legs. The Tree-Walking technique ignited beneath his boots — not to walk, but to launch.
He kicked off the ground and slammed into the first guard, driving the knife into the man's throat just below the rebreather. Blood sprayed across the sanctum floor.
Serek didn't scream. He simply said, "I warned you."
The remaining three guards raised their flamers and fired.
The sanctum filled with fire.
The kneeling victims didn't move.
They didn't even flinch as the flames roared around them.
Elias ducked low, chakra flaring in his feet, and ran up the wall, the stone hissing underfoot. One flamer tracked him — but too slow. The gout of fire licked just behind him as he vaulted off the ceiling, over their heads, and landed behind the altar.
System Notification:
> Chakra Application: Successful
> Surface Maneuvering (Tier 1): STABLE
> Combat Focus Level: Moderate
> Vital Signs: High Stress
Elias drew the second knife from his boot and threw it blind — the blade sunk into a guard's wrist, sending his flamer crashing to the floor. The man screamed.
The second one turned, adjusting his aim—Elias dove under the arc of fire, rolled, and slashed the fuel line.
A spark hit.
The man ignited from the inside.
He didn't watch.
He ran.
Through a back hallway. Down stone stairs. Into the reliquary tunnels.
The chapel above thundered with shouts — not chaos, not madness — just ritual.
Chants.
Purity litanies.
"Burn the rot. Burn the shadow. Burn the doubt."
As he ran, Elias touched his side. Singed.
His coat was on fire.
He ripped it off and kept running.
The stone walls here were etched with scripture — or what looked like it. But the deeper he went, the less the letters resembled High Gothic… and the more they resembled the scrawling of the Warp.
Half-faith. Half-madness.
He slid down a collapsed pillar shaft and hit the floor hard — too hard.
Something cracked.
The air fled his lungs.
The System flickered — not warning. Just waiting.
It wanted him to push again.
To fall again.
To burn again.
He heard footsteps above.
More coming.
The guards weren't normal PDF. They moved in formation. Purge teams.
Elias forced chakra into his feet and ran straight up the tunnel wall, using the cracked pillar like a ramp.
He reached a support beam and climbed along it like a spider, hiding in the dark just as two torch-bearing guards walked below.
He watched them pass.
Then dropped, silent, behind them.
Didn't kill them.
Didn't need to.
He was after something else.
Father Serek wasn't just executing survivors.
He was hiding something beneath the chapel.
Elias could feel it.
Like a pulse. Not psychic. Not Warp.
Something deeper.
And it was calling him.
He moved into the lowest vault.
And what he found…
Wasn't holy.
[END OF PART 4]