As the doors opened, the view Infront of them was not what Elias expected. Rather than a room, it opened onto the precipice of a cliff built inside a vast chamber.

  The gate rattled open. Elias stepped out and was struck by the heat, unlike the industrial furnace heat of the Cloister, or the rot-warmth of the Warrens. This was dry, ancient, and absolute; it felt like standing inside the throat of a dragon.

  They were finally inside the Cathedral of the Godfire Maw.

  It was less a building than a cage constructed around a catastrophe. The walls vaulted hight off into darkness, lost in smoke, supported by flying buttresses of red glazed stone that resembled some giant beasts ribs. Stained glass windows, three storeys high, depicted the Order’s history, the lies they had just uncovered down below.

  But it was the centre of the room that dominated everything.

  The floor ended abruptly in a jagged, circular lip. In the centre of the cathedral, there was no floor, only the Maw.

  A seething, silent chasm of pure white fire. It didn't crackle; it roared with a sound so low it resonated in the bone marrow rather than the ears.

  Suspended over the chasm by massive chains of Star-Steel was a single, circular platform: the High Altar.

  [ZONE: CATHEDRAL OF THE GODFIRE MAW] [ATMOSPHERE: CRITICAL OVERCHARGE]

  "I know this place," Elias whispered. The memory superimposed itself over his vision, sharp and terrifying: the heat on his face, the chains on his wrists, the shove. "This is where I died."

  "And where you returned," Solari said, her light nearly swallowed by the radiance of the Maw, making her seem dim. "The cycle closes."

  They walked out onto the bridge connecting the entrance to the altar. It swayed slightly over the abyss, the heat from below shimmering the air about them, inciting vertigo.

  Thorne stopped at the foot of the bridge, clutching her branded hand, her face pale and slick with sweat. Unable to cast, she had drawn her obsidian dagger with her good hand.

  "He’s there," she rasped.

  Standing on the altar, with his back to them, was a figure.

  He wore armour that looked as if it had been forged from the noonday sun itself, gold filigree over crimson plate. But the armour vibrated, seams of blinding white light leaked from the joints.

  He was no longer just wearing the armour; he looked as if he was about to explode. Into action, or into pieces, was yet to be decided.

  "Commander," Elias called out, his voice amplified by the acoustics of the dome.

  Vauhl didn't turn immediately, but began to speak.

  "I felt the regulators die," he said, his voice deep and resonant, the voice of a man who had spent a lifetime shouting orders over the roar of flames. "I felt the pressure rise. The Scourgeyard. The Bellforge. You broke the restraints."

  He turned slowly.

  His face was exposed. He wasn't wearing a helmet. He was an older man, his skin weathered and cracked by heat, a scar running from his temple to his jaw. His eyes burned with a fanatical, terrifying clarity. Veins of glowing white energy pulsed beneath his skin.

  "We overloaded the grid," Elias said. "You're the lightning rod now, Vauhl. You're holding the weight of the entire mountain."

  "I am the vessel," Vauhl corrected. "I expected an army, a siege. Instead... I see a ghost."

  He glanced at the [Bastion-Breaker Plate], then at [Dawnfall].

  "The Knight," Vauhl breathed. "The one who broke. The one I fed to the fire. You don’t even remember what you were. Do you? Ser-”

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  Elias cut him off firmly, his voice stopping Vauhl "I remember enough"

  "And I didn't break," Elias said, as he stepped onto the platform. "I woke up."

  "And you brought... pets." Vauhl glanced at Veyra, Cindersnarl, Oaken, and Briar. His eyes lingered on Thorne’s hand, a small, sad smile forming on his lips.

  "Ah. Sister Thorne. I felt your silence, too. The brand suits you. It is quiet. Obedient."

  Thorne let out a sound like a wounded animal and lunged forward.

  "Don't!" Elias shouted.

  Vauhl raised a hand, but didn't cast a spell. He simply flicked his fingers.

  A Glyph of Judgement flared on the floor beneath Thorne. A pillar of hard light slammed into her, pinning her to the stone. She struggled, screaming soundlessly.

  "Inefficient," Vauhl sighed, drawing his weapon.

  Vauhl's preferred weapon was a Greatspear, its tip burned with an intense purified flame. The haft was etched with the history of the Order’s sins.

  [BOSS ENCOUNTER: COMMANDER ECCLESIARCH VAUHL] [THREAT: APOCALYPTIC]

  "We saw the Veil," Elias said. "We saw the carvings, Vauhl. The Gods didn't help you bind the Child. They stopped you from killing her."

  Vauhl froze, the calm veneer cracking for a second.

  "You entered the Veil?"

  "We stripped the paint," Elias said. "We know. She isn't a battery. She’s the Anchor. If you kill her, you don't ascend. You erase everything."

  Vauhl laughed, a dry, rasping sound.

  "The Gods were afraid!" he roared, his voice suddenly thundering. "They feared her potential! They feared our potential! They bound her to keep us on our knees! I am not afraid!"

  He slammed the butt of his spear onto the Altar. The platform shook, and the Maw below churned.

  "I will finish what the First Commander was too weak to do. I will burn the Anchor. And from the ashes, we will rise."

  "Not while I’m standing," Elias said.

  He triggered [SwitchStance].

  Click.[STANCE:JUSTICE].

  The blade flared red.

  "Mercy first," Elias whispered.

  "No," Vauhl said, lowering his spear. "Fire is final."

  Vauhl moved with a speed that belied his heavy armour, thrusting the spear in a blur of motion.

  CLANG.

  Elias barely got his sword up in time. The impact drove him back three steps, the spear tip grazing his pauldron and leaving a molten furrow in the Star-Steel.

  [DAMAGE MITIGATED: IRON-ZENITH]

  "You wear our steel," Vauhl spat, spinning the spear. "But you do not know how to dance."

  He slammed his hand on the ground.

  FLARE.

  A runic circle ignited under Elias’s feet. [DivineTrap].

  "Move!" Solari screamed.

  Elias rolled as a pillar of holy fire erupted from the rune, singeing his cloak.

  Vauhl was already moving, tracing a glyph in the air with his free hand.

  [BIND].

  Chains of fire shot from the air, wrapping around Oaken and Cindersnarl.

  "I will deal with the animals later," Vauhl sneered.

  He focused on Elias. It was now a duel. Vauhl fought with an intensity brought about by years of fighting; he fought like a master. He used Divine Parries, catching Elias’s strikes on his spear shaft and redirecting the kinetic force back at him.

  Elias swung hard, a heavy, overhead slash.

  Vauhl caught the blade, twisted, and kicked Elias in the chest.

  WHAM.

  Elias flew backwards, sliding to the edge of the platform. His heels hung over the abyss of the Maw. The heat rising from below was terrifying.

  Flashes of red in his peripheral vision magnified the light rising up from below.

  "Move!" Briar yelled. She loosed a volley of moss-arrows at Vauhl’s visor.

  Vauhl didn't even look. His aura incinerated the arrows mid-air.

  "You are clumsy," Vauhl said, walking toward Elias. "You fight with anger. Anger is fuel, Knight. It is not a strategy."

  Elias scrambled up. "I'm not a Knight anymore."

  He switched stances.

  Click.[STANCE: MERCY].

  The blade turned green.

  Vauhl thrust again. This time, Elias didn't try to overpower him; he deflected.

  He caught the spear on the flat of the Mercy blade. The impact rang out—a pure tone.

  [PARRY SUCCESS] [HEALING PULSE TRIGGERED]

  Green light flowed up Elias’s arm, knitting the bruises on his chest.

  Elias spun inside the guard and drove his pommel into Vauhl’s faceplate.

  CRACK.

  Vauhl staggered.

  "I'm a healer," Elias snarled.

  "Solari! Now! Flash-Blind!"

  Solari dropped from the ceiling like a falling star, exploding with light right in Vauhl’s eyes.

  FLASH.

  Vauhl roared, blinded, and swung his spear wildly.

  "Cindersnarl! Break the chains!"

  The Warg, enraged by the binding, flared his own heat, melting the fire-chains holding him and Oaken. He leaped.

  He didn't attack Vauhl. He attacked the floor.

  Vauhl had been drawing power from glyphs etched into the Altar. Cindersnarl dug his claws into the stone, ripping up the runes. Oaken slammed his stone fists down, shattering the conduits.

  "My connection!" Vauhl shouted, his vision clearing. "Filthy beasts!"

  He aimed his spear at the Warg. A bolt of white fire charged at the tip.

  "NOoooo!"

  Thorne, still pinned by the light pillar, managed to move her hand and reached into her belt. She couldn't throw a grenade, but she could throw debris. She grabbed a loose stone.

  The stone struck his helm with a dull crack.

  It did nothing.

  But it broke his focus, just enough.

  The bolt fired wide, scorching Cindersnarl’s flank but missing his vitals.

  Elias was there in an instant.

  He drove Dawnfall into the joint of Vauhl’s knee armour.

  [SAPROOT CLEANSING: DISRUPT]

  He poured the nature magic into the Commanders divine armour. The two energies clashed violently, a miniature parallel of the battle outside.

  Vauhl’s leg locked up, and he fell to one knee.

  "You think this... stops me?" Vauhl wheezed.

  The air in the Cathedral changed. The heat spiked.

  The Maw below roared.

  Vauhl’s armour began to glow, not gold now, but white. The remaining seals were failing. He was drawing directly from the unfettered raw power of the Maw.

  "I am the vessel," Vauhl whispered, "I am the wood and the spark."

  [PHASE 2 INITIATED] [BOSS FORM: MARTYR OF THE ETERNAL FLAME]