Chapter 16: Vault Seven
A frozen storm rolled across Bastion's western ruins.
Blades of ice clung to half-shattered towers. Roads became white labyrinths. Snow muted the world, save for the low hum of relic engines piercing through the cold.
Rayven's breath crystallized as he stepped off the armored transport.
Behind him: Selene, Rhea, Jex, and a four-man assault team—all wrapped in reinforced thermal armor.
Before them: the jagged entrance to Vault Seven, half-buried beneath collapsed concrete and spectral frost.
The Fourth Seal lay somewhere inside. Rayven could feel it. Like a second heartbeat.
Jex tapped a scanner. "Radiation's off the charts. And something's jamming my comms."
Rhea frowned. "Perfect place to hide a god-tier artifact."
Selene drew her twin blades. "Let's not waste time."
Inside the Vault
They descended through winding corridors, ice climbing the walls like veins. The deeper they went, the more unnatural it felt—like the cold was alive.
Flickering holograms played ghost-like memories on the walls. Soldiers fighting shadows. Screams. Then silence.
"This place was a Seraphim research bunker," Rhea whispered. "Shut down after the last collapse."
Rayven felt it—pressure. As if the air thickened the closer they got to the core.
They reached a large circular chamber.
At its center, hovering inches above a platform of obsidian glass: the Fourth Seal.
It pulsed with violet light, fragments orbiting like a galaxy in miniature.
And standing between them and it—
A single figure.
Armor black as void. No insignia. No visible face.
"You should not be here," the figure said, voice distorted.
Selene stepped forward. "We're taking the Seal. Step aside."
"No," it said. "I am the Gate. The Seal does not belong to the broken bloodline."
Rayven stepped up. "I'm not asking."
The Battle for the Fourth Seal
The Vault erupted in violence.
The Guardian blurred, moving faster than anyone had anticipated. It clashed blades with Selene, her daggers sparking off its curved arm-plating.
Jex fired sonic rounds—it deflected them mid-air.
Rhea slammed her hammer into the ground, disrupting the magnetic field and briefly staggering the Guardian.
Rayven saw his opening.
He surged forward, the Gauntlet glowing with awakened light. He leapt—twisting mid-air—and punched the Guardian square in the chest.
It cracked.
But didn't fall.
The Guardian spun, slashing across Rayven's chest, sending him flying into a support pillar.
Selene screamed his name.
Rhea roared, slamming the Guardian with a burst of fire.
Then—Jex tossed Rayven a relic spike.
"Use it!" he shouted.
Rayven gripped it, charged forward again. This time, he channeled.
The spike turned white-hot in his hand.
He drove it into the Guardian's chest.
It shrieked.
And exploded into fragments of black light.
Contact with the Fourth Seal
Rayven stepped toward the Seal.
It pulsed—responding to his presence.
He reached out, the Gauntlet humming. As his fingers brushed the edge of the relic, a vision flashed behind his eyes.
—A city in flames.
—A golden throne.
—Himself, cloaked in ash, holding a blade shaped like a spine.
—And the voice of his father:
"When you wear the crown, the world will bleed, my son."
Rayven gasped, stumbling back. His nose bled.
Selene caught him. "What did you see?"
He wiped the blood. "A future I don't want."
Rhea stepped forward. "The Seal. It changed you."
The Gauntlet's sigils had morphed—now etched with violet cracks and runes no one could read.
"I'm fine," Rayven muttered. "Let's get out of here."
Outside the Vault – An Ambush
They emerged from the Vault into the cold.
But the world wasn't quiet anymore.
Dozens of black-armored Seraphim troopers stood in a semicircle—plasma weapons aimed.
At the center stood Vahl, grinning under his bone mask.
"Nice to see you all again," he purred. "Thanks for digging that up for us."
Rhea raised her weapon. "You've got five seconds to disappear."
Vahl laughed. "Wrong. You've got five seconds to surrender."
Rayven stepped forward, Seal pulsing behind his ribs.
"You want the Seal?" he said. "Come take it."
The Icefield Standoff
Without warning, Rhea unleashed a barrage of shock mines, detonating beneath the Seraphim line.
Selene leapt into the chaos, blades spinning.
Jex hacked a nearby drone swarm, redirecting it mid-air.
Rayven pushed through the fray, punching through armor like it was glass.
Then came Vahl.
He and Rayven collided in the heart of the blizzard, trading blows like titans.
"You're just a shadow!" Rayven shouted.
"You're a relic," Vahl snarled. "A failure clinging to a city already dead."
Rayven's power surged.
He drove his fist into Vahl's chest, cracking the armor.
"Then let's die fighting!"
Escape and Cost
The resistance team barely made it out—Jex wounded, Rhea limping, two of the squad killed.
But they had the Fourth Seal.
And Bastion would never be the same.
Epilogue – High Spire Conference Room
High Warden Caelis watched footage of the battle.
The way Rayven moved. The way the Seal responded.
He turned to his advisors.
"Initiate Protocol Iron Eclipse," he said. "And double the bounty on the Forgotten Heir."