Location: Subterranean Chamber Beneath Kilimani
The spiral staircase seemed endless, hewn from a stone so black it drank the light. Damien's boots struck each step with precision, but every sound felt muted—swallowed by the ancient air that wrapped around them like a shroud.
Nora walked beside him, her flashlight illuminating symbols on the walls. "These aren't just carvings. They're instructions. Rituals. Maybe even technology."
Damien stopped. "How do you know that?"
She hesitated, her gaze locked on a symbol that glowed faintly. "Because I've seen them before… in my mother's private archive. Hidden from the rest of the world."
Damien's expression tightened. "So your family was connected to this too?"
"Seems like everyone's past is tangled in this place," she muttered. "This isn't just your legacy, Damien. It might be mine too."
The stairs finally opened into a wide chamber, the ceiling arched like the ribs of a beast. In the center stood a monolith—twenty feet tall, covered in glyphs that pulsed like a heartbeat.
At its base lay a sealed sarcophagus.
Peter and Linda's voices crackled over the radio, barely audible. "We're picking up seismic activity around your location. You've triggered something. Be careful."
Damien nodded. "We're past the point of caution."
He stepped closer to the sarcophagus. There was no lock. Just a groove shaped like a hand.
Nora grabbed his wrist. "Wait. Once we open this… there's no going back."
"I know," he said. "But we've already come too far."
He placed his palm in the groove.
A violent pulse surged through the air, and the glyphs exploded with light. The lid of the sarcophagus began to shift with a deep, guttural groan.
Inside was not a corpse.
It was a machine—humanoid, made of obsidian, bone, and something that looked like liquid starlight. Its eyes opened slowly, glowing a deep crimson.
Damien froze.
Then a voice—clear, ancient, and not quite human—filled the chamber.
"Heir of Dominion. You have awoken the Sentinel."
Nora took a step back. "Dominion? Damien… what is this?"
But Damien didn't respond. He was staring into the eyes of the machine. Not in fear.
In recognition.
Because deep within his memories—ones not his own—he had seen this being before.
This was not the end.
This was the beginning of the reckoning.