Chapter 181: The Descent Bells began ringing — small chimes that echoed with a calm, steady rhythm. From the sound, Finn knew they hadn’t gone all out yet. This was just a simple warning bell calling the templars to readiness. But the response to that call surprised not just Finn, but the entire Transcendent party. Soldiers poured from barracks. Templars emerged from meditation chambers. The entire complex began swarming with activity, making their charge much harder. The bodies moving around more than quadrupled within seconds, increasing the chances of them being caught. No one could actually sense them yet. Even the templar that sounded the alarm only did so out of caution. But the main worry now was that with so many people moving around, anyone could literally walk into the range of Keeva and Osric’s disguise and silence magic, and they’d disappear from the view of their companions, drawing immediate attention. And it didn’t take too long for that to happen. They hadn’t walked too far, when despite their efforts to evade, a soldier stumbled directly into their path. Himothy moved without hesitation. One hand clamped over the man’s mouth, the other twisted his neck with casual strength. The body dropped silently, pulled into their concealment bubble. They kept moving, dragging the corpse along until they could deposit it behind a supply cart. Thirty seconds later, another soldier wandered too close. This time Thalia acted, Order imposing absolute stillness on the man’s heart. He collapsed mid-step, dead before he hit the ground. As they moved, the numbers of bodies they put down increased. And naturally, the soldiers began to notice. Finn saw recognition dawning in their faces as more and more of their companions vanished without explanation, here one moment and gone the next. Confusion rippled through their ranks, confusion edging toward panic. We’ll have to ditch this bubble anytime now... Finn thought, priming to burst into action. But surprisingly, somehow they made it to the vicinity of the main temples without getting caught. From this close, they could see the hole itself. And immediately Finn saw the hole, he was hit by a sense of uncanny familiarity. It almost looks like... the Soul Sanctum. Finn frowned as he took in the hole with more scrutiny. It was massive. An Artificial, perfectly circular pit descending into darkness, easily two hundred feet in diameter. Wooden platforms and rope bridges created a descending spiral path along its walls, leading down into depths Finn couldn’t see from this angle. But the closer he got to it, the more the sense of familiarity lessened. And the more he doubted whether it was actually similar to the Soul Sanctum. Until eventually, he simply decided to put the thought aside and focus on the mission. I can think of that later— A shiver suddenly went down his spine. Every Transcendent’s gaze snapped upward simultaneously. At the top of the southern temple’s grand staircase, a figure stood. Female. Built like a war goddess made manifest. Easily seven feet tall, muscles like carved marble visible beneath armor that seemed melded with her skin rather than worn. Hair like white flame cascaded down her back. Eyes that sparked with literal lightning. She was looking directly at them. Not toward their general area. Not sensing wrongness in their direction. Directly. At. Them. Because she could see through every veil, every barrier, every conceptual disguise. Her eyes met Finn’s across the distance. She smiled. And without warning, without any declaration or preparation, her hand moved, hurling a spear made from condensed lightning of pure destruction. "MOVE!" Casmir shouted, the first word spoken since they’d entered the complex. The Transcendents exploded into motion as one. The lightning spear covered the distance in a microsecond, reality screaming as it tore through space. Osric threw himself sideways, the weapon missing his leg by inches as it punched through three smaller temples like they were paper. The spear continued its trajectory toward the northern great temple then abruptly dissolved. Finn’s eyes tracked the dispersal, finding its source: a male figure emerging from the northern temple’s entrance. Tall, lean, wrapped in shadows that moved independently of light. His hand was raised, fingers spread, divine authority radiating from him like a beacon. He observed the fleeing Transcendents first, cataloging them with passive interest. Then his gaze shifted to the southern temple. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 "Really, Thalassa?" His voice carried across the complex with unnatural clarity. He had an aristocratic accent that dripped with amusement, unlike what his pale looks would suggest. "Trying to destroy our temple along with the intruders? How very... crude of you." The war goddess — Thalassa — bristled. Lightning crackled across her skin. "Your precious temple was never in danger, Nocturne. Unlike you, I actually know how to aim—" She was still speaking. But Nocturne had stopped paying attention. He moved. Phasing through the air like a wraith of shadows as he dove toward the fleeing Transcendents who had just reached the edge of the massive pit. Without hesitation, the Transcendents jumped. Finn’s stomach lurched as gravity took hold. Wind rushed past as they fell, the wooden platforms and rope bridges a blur in his peripheral vision. Then Casmir’s spatial manipulation kicked in, controlling their fall expertly. He redirected their momentum, creating spatial distortions of reduced gravity that slowed their descent without fully arresting it. They hit the first platform hard but not lethally. Himothy was already rolling, coming up in a fighting stance. Thalia landed, using Order to cushion her impact. Yara somehow kept Ailin protected despite the violent landing. Finn activated [Frame Skip] mid-fall, glitching his position to land cleanly on the next platform down. Above them, darkness descended. Nocturne came down the pit like a falling shadow. Behind him, lightning struck as Thalassa launched herself into pursuit with less grace but no less speed. "Down!" Casmir commanded. "Keep moving down!" They ran, leaping from platform to platform in controlled falls, using the spiral path when necessary but mostly just dropping through open space with Casmir’s spatial manipulation preventing fatal impacts. The pit descended impossibly deep into darkness. A hundred feet. Two hundred. Three hundred. And the two divine figures pursued relentlessly. Nocturne reached them first. His hand extended, and shadows coalesced into blades of darkness that sliced first towards Himothy’s exposed back. But Thalia intervened, creating a small barrier of ordered atoms that solidified into a shield to stop the shadow-blades. They struck with ringing impact, and the force sent her skidding backward, boots carving furrows in the wooden platform. "Glory Declaration: Unstoppable Advance!" Himothy roared. Reality bent. It was the same probability manipulation Finn had witnessed in the desert, the world agreeing with Himothy’s declaration, making it more true with each passing second. Himothy charged Nocturne directly, fist wreathed in concept-born lightning. The divine being dodged casually — too casually, as if the attack posed no real threat. But Himothy had created an opening. The group surged past, continuing their descent while Himothy engaged. One platform. Two. Three more levels down. Then Thalassa cut them off from below. She’d circled around somehow — perhaps her divine speed let her outpace their fall. But now she stood on a platform directly in their path, with a lightning spear forming in her hand. "Enough running," she said, voice like thunder. "Face me prop—" Deacon’s eyes blazed golden. "Truth: You never arrived here," he spoke, and Finn felt the conceptual weight of those words crash down on reality. For a split second, Thalassa flickered, existing and not-existing simultaneously, as Truth warred with her divine nature, trying to retroactively erase her presence from this location.