The intake record was chillingly simple: *"Lena Weaver, Dawn District. Blood purity: Unclean (Grade 3). Designation: Omega Feedstock. Processing: Immediate."*
"She's not in a nursery," Lyra whispered in the Cathedral archives, her face pale in the candlelight. "She's being fed to the Omega Units to *bind* them."
Garrick's voice was a low growl. "Malrik isn't just making soldiers. He's making **batteries**. Using children's souls to power his monsters."
Kael knew they had one chance. The Omega Units were kept docile in the Sanctum of Whispers, fed a constant stream of soul-energy through tubes connected to captives. If they cut the feed, the Units would go berserk—chaos Malrik couldn't control.
Their plan was desperate, precise, born of the **Void Arts** they'd forged in Veridia.
**Phase One: Distraction**
Elara, from a bell tower, mimicked Malrik's voice over the city: *"All citizens report to the central square for divine blessing!"* Panic spread. Templars scrambled.
**Phase Two: Infiltration**
Bastian disabled the Sanctum's sonic wards with Void-Forged chisels. Lyra bypassed the soul-locked door using a cipher she'd cracked from Arion's map. Garrick dueled two Inquisitors in the hallway, his Void-Forged sword shearing through their blessed armor.
**Phase Three: The Heart of Darkness**
Kael phased into the Sanctum.
The room was circular, walls lined with glowing runes. In the center, suspended in mid-air by chains of light, floated **Archbishop Malrik**—not standing, but *levitating*, his eyes closed, hands outstretched. Below him, on stone slabs, lay children—twenty of them, tubes snaking from their temples into the backs of hulking figures.
The **Penitent Omega Units**.
They were seven feet tall, armored in blackened bone, eyes glowing white voids. And chained to their chests, tubes pulsing with stolen life, was **Lena**—alive, but barely, her small body a conduit for Malrik's power.
Malrik's eyes snapped open. They weren't human. They were **starless voids**, filled with ancient hunger.
"So," Malrik's voice echoed, not from his mouth, but from the walls themselves. "The gutter rat comes to the lion's den. Do you know what I am, child?"
Kael didn't flinch. "A parasite. Wearing a man's skin."
Malrik laughed—a sound like grinding galaxies. "I am the **Devourer of Light**. The hunger behind the sun. The Church is my flock, their faith my feast. And you…" His gaze fell on Lena. "You are just another morsel."
He gestured. The nearest Omega Unit turned, its head swiveling 180 degrees, and charged.
Kael didn't fight it. He **phased** behind it, then drove a Void-Forged dagger into the tube feeding from Lena's temple.
The effect was instantaneous.
The Omega Unit convulsed. Its white eyes flickered, then blazed red with stolen agony. It turned on its brothers, roaring—a sound of pure, soul-deep pain.
Chaos erupted.
Garrick burst in, tossing Lyra a vial. "Now!"
Lyra smashed it on the floor. **Soulrot Mist** filled the room.
The Omega Units screamed, their bindings corrupted. They turned on Malrik, their creator.
Malrik snarled, raising a hand. Dark energy crackled. "Fools! You think soul-rot can touch *me*?"
Kael didn't aim for Malrik. He aimed for **Lena**.
He phased to her slab, severed her tubes with a single cut, and scooped her small, trembling body into his arms. Her eyes fluttered open—human, terrified, but *alive*.
"Shh," Kael whispered. "You're safe."
He signaled the retreat. Bastian triggered alchemical charges on the Sanctum walls. Stone cracked. Dust filled the air.
As they fled through collapsing corridors, Malrik's enraged scream followed them: *"YOU CANNOT KILL HUNGER, RAT! I AM ETERNAL!"*
They escaped into the sewers, Lena clinging to Kael like a lifeline.
Back in the Dawn District warehouse, the old weaver wept as she held her granddaughter. The people of the district gathered, not with torches, but with bread, with blankets, with quiet thanks.
Kael looked at his guild—Lyra exhausted but triumphant, Bastian sharpening a new blade, Garrick watching the streets with renewed purpose, Elara humming a lullaby to Lena.
They hadn't killed Malrik.
But they'd stolen his prey.
And in a city built on fear, **hope was the deadliest weapon of all**.
> **[QUEST COMPLETE: RESCUE LENA OF THE DAWN DISTRICT.]**
> **[REWARDS: VOID ARTS — SOUL-SHROUD (HIDE FROM SOUL-SENSING ENTITIES), PUBLIC TRUST +20%.]**
> **[NEW STATUS UPDATES]**
> **ALL MEMBERS: VOD +2, WIS +1**
> **KAEL: CHA +2 (LEADERSHIP)]**
> **[PUBLIC OPINION: DAWN DISTRICT — LOYAL (92% TRUST).]**
> **[WARNING: MALRIK HAS BEGUN THE RITUAL OF ECLIPSE. HOLY WAR IMMINENT.]**