Chapter 364: Final Aegis Chamber

Nobody moved until Sera finally spoke. "...I really don’t like that last part."

"Neither do I," Lily said immediately.

Gabriel stared at the crystal. "What does it mean?"

No one had an answer.

Kai stepped closer, the blue light reflecting across his face as he studied the message. Something about it felt wrong, and it wasn’t the words so much as the timing.

Aegis had recorded its own failure thousands of years ago, and yet somehow, the ruins knew about Mythal.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "Someone left this for whoever came after them."

Lily looked at him. "You think they expected someone to find it?"

"Maybe."

Sera crossed her arms. "That’s a little optimistic."

Kai glanced at her. "Why?"

"Because most ancient civilizations don’t leave messages saying, ’Congratulations, you’re doing better than us.’"

Lily snorted. "She’s got a point."

Gabriel smiled faintly before her face turned serious again. "There’s only one way to find out what they meant." She pointed to the far side of the chamber, where a narrow passage had opened into darkness. None of them had noticed it before.

Lily stared. "That wasn’t there earlier."

Sera drew her sword again. "Of course it wasn’t."

"Let’s go," Kai said, already walking toward it.

Sera followed him. "You say that way too casually."

"We came here to find answers."

"And every answer we’ve found has made things worse."

Kai glanced back. "That’s still an answer."

Sera sighed. "Sometimes I really hate your logic."

"You keep following me."

"Because someone has to make sure you don’t walk into something stupid."

Lily looked between them. "You two realize you’re having a normal conversation while walking into an ancient death trap, right?"

"Yes," Sera said with a smile.

Kai nodded. "Correct."

Lily shook her head. "Unbelievable."

The walls changed the moment they entered the passage. The stone was darker and older, and the symbols carved into it were much larger. There were no weapons or storage rooms here, no evacuation routes and no records, only a single path leading down.

They walked for several minutes, then ten, then twenty, and the deeper they went, the quieter Aegis became. Every sound from the world above faded away until there wasn’t even the distant hum of the machines, only their own footsteps.

Sera eventually looked back the way they had come. "We’ve gone pretty far."

"We’re beneath the main city now," Gabriel said.

"Much deeper than that," Lily said, pressing her hand against the wall. "And the construction is different down here. The upper sections were built for people." She looked down the passage. "This wasn’t."

Kai looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "I don’t know yet."

The passage kept widening until it opened onto a staircase that descended into total darkness. Kai looked down, but he couldn’t see the bottom.

Sera leaned over the edge. "That’s deep."

Gabriel’s expression tightened. "How far beneath the city are we?"

Lily checked one of the ancient markers on the wall. "At least several kilometers. We’ve been descending the whole time."

Sera stared into the dark. "Why would anyone build something this deep?"

"Because whatever is down there was important," Kai said.

The staircase seemed endless, but eventually they reached another door, this one far larger than any they had seen, rising at least forty meters above them. It had no handle and no visible mechanism, only the King’s symbol carved into its center.

The moment Kai stepped toward it, something clicked, and the door unlocked.

Sera looked at him. "...Did you do that?"

Kai shook his head. "No."

"It reacted to you," Lily said, her eyes wide.

Kai didn’t answer as the doors began to open.

BOOOOOOM.

The sound echoed through the depths, shaking dust from the ceiling as the ground trembled beneath them, and when the doors finally parted, everyone stopped where they stood.

It wasn’t a room on the other side. It was an entire structure buried underground, a colossal circular chamber that stretched further than they could see. Massive pillars rose into the darkness, ancient bridges crossed empty space, and blue light glowed from enormous crystals set into the walls. In the center stood an empty circular platform surrounded by broken stone.

Above it floated an image of the sky, though it wasn’t a painting or a projection like any Kai had seen. Stars drifted across it while constellations shifted and clouds formed and faded, showing the whole sky above an ancient world.

"What is that?" Lily asked.

Gabriel looked just as stunned. "I don’t know."

Kai walked slowly toward the platform. Enormous symbols circled it, some broken and some still whole, and behind it stood a shattered throne almost twice the height of a person. Its back had been broken, one arm had collapsed, and the seat was cracked straight down the middle.

Sera looked at it. "Someone sat there?"

"Probably," Lily said.

"Who?"

Lily shook her head.

There was no body, no weapon, and no crown, only the empty throne, and yet Kai felt a faint pressure in the air, as though the chamber was waiting for something.

He looked up. The artificial sky kept moving until it suddenly darkened, and a massive shape appeared in the distance.

Sera’s eyes widened. "That’s him."

"Bahamut," Lily said.

The image showed the dragon descending, and then the stars disappeared, leaving only black. A line of ancient writing appeared across the wall, and Lily translated it, her voice dropping. "Three have fallen."

Everyone went still.

"Three?" Sera said.

More lines appeared beneath the first, and Lily read each one slowly. "The first was judged. The second was broken. The third was lost."

Sera frowned. "Who are they talking about?"

"I don’t know," Gabriel said.

"Maybe civilizations," Lily suggested.

Kai stared at the words. It could mean the three Disasters, or it could mean three civilizations, three candidates, or three failed attempts. The records didn’t say, and that uncertainty made the chamber feel even larger.

"There’s another line," Lily said, stepping closer. These symbols were cut much deeper than the rest, as if someone had carved them with tremendous force. She read slowly. "The fourth will not descend from the sky."

Sera looked at Gabriel. "...What does that mean?"

"I don’t know," Gabriel said.

Lily looked uneasy. "The wording is deliberate. It says the fourth will not descend, which means whoever wrote this knew the fourth was coming."

Kai looked up at the artificial sky, where the image of Bahamut was gone and only darkness remained.

Sera slowly lowered her sword. "Then what is the fourth?"

Nobody answered, and Kai’s thoughts raced. Bahamut hadn’t sent him here to understand what had already happened. He had sent him here to understand what was coming. If the first three Disasters had all come from above, then the next one could rise from the ground or the sea, or from inside humanity itself, or it could be something that was already here.

A soft click echoed through the chamber, and everyone turned. Blue light was climbing one of the ancient pillars, and a moment later, another pillar lit up with the same soft click, then another.

"The chamber is activating," Lily said, her face tense.

Sera raised her sword again. "Why?"

Gabriel looked at Kai. "I think it recognized us."

Kai didn’t answer. The pillars lit one after another, ten, then twenty, then hundreds, until the entire chamber was glowing. The stars above vanished, and a massive symbol appeared in their place. It wasn’t the King’s symbol. It was a circle broken in four places, with three of its sections dark and the fourth glowing bright blue.

Lily stared up at it. "What is that?"

Distortion stirred inside Kai, harder than it had at any point since they arrived. The air around him bent, and dust lifted off the ground at his feet.

Sera noticed immediately. "Kai?"

"I’m fine."

The glowing symbol grew larger, and a low hum filled the chamber.

BOOM.

The platform at the center activated, and a column of blue light shot into the ceiling. What was left of the throne exploded outward, and Sera grabbed Lily and pulled her back while Gabriel threw up a barrier. Kai stayed exactly where he was.

Through the falling debris, a shape was forming inside the light. It wasn’t a person or a monster, only an enormous silhouette of something that had been waiting beneath Aegis for thousands of years.

"Is that..." Lily began.

The light went out, and darkness swallowed the chamber. Then a voice echoed through the ruins, ancient and distorted, barely understandable.

"Judgment incomplete."

Sera froze.

"Candidate recognized."

Kai’s eyes widened as the chamber began to shake violently, and a final message appeared across every wall at once.

FOURTH JUDGMENT INITIATED.