Smoke turned into a mace in Atman's hands - huge, dark-blue, shaped with ridges and weight, swinging like it could crush bone. Kenzo blocked with his hammer, metal against compressed smoke, and the collision made the dome ripple like a drumhead.

Atman twisted his wrist, and the mace dissolved into threads mid-contact, slipping around Kenzo's block and snapping toward his ribs like whips.

Kenzo met it head-on. The threads struck his body and bounced off like they hit stone. Kenzo swung low, aiming for the legs.

Atman stepped back, then vanished into fog.

Not teleportation exactly - more like he dissolved into the haze and reformed a step away, his shape flickering as if the fog was his skin.

Kenzo's eyes narrowed. "Oh, that's cheating."

Atman laughed. "I call it skill."

Kenzo surged forward again, faster.

Atman didn't retreat this time. He raised both hands, and the entire dome's inner fog rotated, turning into a spiral that tried to drag Kenzo off balance.

Kenzo dug his boots into the ground, then jumped straight up through the pull, hammer lifted above his head. He rose high enough that his silhouette brushed against the ceiling of the dome, and for a second he hung there, suspended.

Atman looked up.

Kenzo brought the hammer down.

This time, grey sparks snapped along the hammerhead.

Not much, but they were there. Heavy-looking sparks that fell downward instead of scattering.

Atman's smile vanished. His eyes widened sharply.

"Kenzo -"

Kenzo didn't answer.

He hit with all of his might.

The earth beneath them caved like it was hollow, and then the ground simply gave up. The dome of smoke shattered as the soil collapsed inward, and both of them fell in a storm of dust, rubble, and broken earth.

Kenzo fell hard.

For a split second, there was nothing but falling and darkness and sand scraping his face.

Then he slammed his feet against something solid mid-fall, and rode the drop like a controlled crash. His knees bent, trying to absorb all of the impact.

Fifty meters, Kenzo counted.

Maybe more.

He landed in a crouch with his hammer planted, dust bursting around him.

Above, Atman's smoke flared like a parachute made of shadows, slowing his fall just barely. He landed lighter than Kenzo, cloak drifting down around him.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

They just coughed.

Dust filled the air, thick and dry, mixing with the lingering fog that seeped down through the hole above. Sand rained from the edges, tapping against stone.

Kenzo straightened and looked up at the square of gray light far above them. The hole wasn't huge. Roughly three by three meters. Just enough to show rain falling through it like thin needles.

Atman stepped closer, still coughing once in a while. He brushed dust from his sleeve like he didn't just fall through the earth.

Then he looked at Kenzo with a grin that was half impressed, half offended.

"How did you even survive that?" Atman asked. "That drop was ridiculous."

Kenzo shrugged, breathing heavy. "I use all my Eon to reinforce my body."

Atman stared. "Pardon- All of it!?"

Kenzo nodded as if it was obvious. "All of it."

Atman clicked his tongue. "That's barbaric!"

Kenzo smirked. "It works."

Atman let out a short laugh "No wonder you were one of the Phalanx…" then finally turned his gaze away from Kenzo and toward the space around them.

Kenzo followed.

The dust began to settle.

And the world revealed itself.

They weren't in dirt anymore.

They were in something carved.

Huge sandstone arches curved overhead, rising into shadow. Pillars leaned at odd angles, half-buried by sand and rubble. Old patterns were etched into the stone - worn down by time, but still there, still deliberate. The air felt different too. Older. Dry. Like this place had been sealed away from the rain and the world for a long, long time.

Kenzo's grin faded slowly.

Atman's smile disappeared completely.

Kenzo turned in a slow circle, hammer hanging heavier at his side now.

He swallowed hard.

"What…" Kenzo said, voice rough in the dust, "is this place?"

He stood at the bottom of the drop they made, looking up at the square of gray light far above. The hole was small. The space they landed in wasn't.

Pillars leaned half-buried in rubble. The place looked like it had been long forgotten.

Kenzo turned slowly, eyes narrowing as he tried to make sense of it.

Atman stood a few steps away, unusually quiet. His smoke had calmed, curling around his sleeves like it was resting. He didn't look playful anymore. He looked… cautious.

Kenzo cleared his throat. "So" he said, forcing a lighter tone because he didn't like silence, "did we just punch through someone's basement?"

Receiving no answer, Kenzo exhaled and started walking, boots crunching over sand and broken stone. If Atman wasn't going to say anything, he'll would just figure it out the old way - move forward until something made sense.

The architecture didn't look like Ukai.

Ukai was wood and living structure, branches shaped into halls, patterns carved like flowers. This was the opposite. Pale stone, sandstone, thick blocks stacked into arches and ribs. Some parts were collapsed, others stood stubbornly intact.

They passed a fallen pillar, and Kenzo ran his fingers over it. The stone was cold. Too cold for a place that should've been warmed by the earth.

"Doesn't really feel like a ruin" Kenzo muttered.

Atman walked behind him, quiet again. "It doesn't."

Kenzo looked back. "Well you're very helpful..."

Atman didn't take the bait. His gaze kept scanning, sharp and deliberate, as if he expected something to move.

Kenzo didn't like that.

He kept moving, and the space began to funnel into something more structured. A wide archway rose ahead, taller than any door had a right to be. It had gates - two massive slabs of pale stone, carved with shallow lines and symbols that didn't match Ukai's floral obsession.

The gates were barely open, not enough for a person to slip through sideways.

Kenzo adjusted his grip on the hammer and stepped closer. He pressed his shoulder to the gate and pushed gently.

It didn't move.

He pushed harder.

Still nothing.

Atman raised one hand, and smoke slid forward, thin and careful. The smoke slipped into the gap between the gates, then withdrew.

"It's not locked" Atman said. "It's just… heavy."

Kenzo smirked. "Finally, something I understand."

He planted his feet and shoved again, using his Eon in a controlled push. The stone groaned faintly, and the gap widened by a few centimeters.

Enough.

Kenzo slipped through first, hammer ready.

The corridor beyond stretched long and straight.

And it was cleaner.

Not spotless - there was still dust - but it wasn't buried under rubble like the room behind them. The floor was mostly intact, the walls chipped, the arches overhead still strong. His boots echoed with a hollow sound.

"This part looks better" Kenzo said quietly.

Atman's eyes didn't leave the corridor. "Almost."

Kenzo frowned. "Almost?"

Atman didn't answer. He walked forward slowly, like every step mattered.

Kenzo followed, trying not to let the silence get into his head. The air felt different here. Less stale. Less dead.

They passed faint markings on the walls. Not decorations. Not art. More like lines someone carved for meaning. Kenzo couldn't read any of it.

He didn't like that either.

"Is this old Ukai stuff?" Kenzo asked.

Atman's voice came out low. "No."

Kenzo's brows rose. "Then what is it?"

Atman's eyes shifted toward him briefly. "Keep walking."

Kenzo wanted to argue, but the tone made him obey.

The corridor ended in another archway, and beyond it, the space opened into a wide circular chamber. Kenzo stopped instinctively, taking it in.

The room was enormous. The ceiling rose high, supported by thick curved ribs of stone with thin Luminite gems, continuously lighting the room up. The walls formed a perfect circle, and carved into those walls were huge sculpted letters - inscriptions spanning the entire curve, like a story written for giants.

At the center of the chamber stood a small structure.

Something that looked like… An altar.

Not fancy. Not decorated with gold or Luminite. Just a raised platform of pale stone with edges worn smooth by time.

Kenzo took a slow step in, then another.

The dust on the floor wasn't random. It was disturbed in faint trails, as if something had moved through recently.

Kenzo felt a small chill run up his neck.

"Okay" he muttered. "Now I'm officially confused."

Atman walked past him toward the center without speaking. His posture tightened the closer he got, the more he read the text on the walls.

Kenzo followed, eyes flicking between the inscriptions and the altar.

"What's it say?" Kenzo asked, trying to sound casual.

Atman didn't respond.

Kenzo glanced at him and saw Atman's hand had already reached out. Smoke curled around his fingers in a thin veil, not for attack - for protection, like he didn't want to touch the stone directly.

Then Atman brushed dust off the top of the altar.

Just two simple sweeps.

The pale surface appeared beneath, cleaner, with inscriptions.

Atman froze.

Kenzo noticed immediately. Atman's hand stopped mid-motion. His shoulders went rigid. His breath held like it got caught in his throat.

Kenzo frowned. "What?"

Atman's head lifted slowly.

His eyes were wide, but not with surprise.

With terror.

Kenzo stared at him, confused and suddenly uneasy. He had seen Atman exhausted. He had seen Atman annoyed. He had even seen Atman laugh in the middle of danger.

He had never seen Atman look like this.

Kenzo swallowed. "What does it say?"

Atman's lips parted slightly.

No sound came out.

Kenzo's chest tightened. "Hello! Atman, you still there?"

Atman blinked once, gaze dropping onto the stone again, then to the inscriptions wrapping around the chamber. He looked like he wanted to deny what he was reading, but the letters didn't change.

Kenzo couldn't read them.

Atman could. He studied at Kelperion. He knew ancient tongues.

Atman's throat moved as he swallowed.

Then he spoke, slowly, like each word weighed too much.

"The inscriptions date to Year 4124" Atman said.

Kenzo frowned. "So? Almost… What? Almost one thousand years since? Makes sense, seeing how old these stuff are."

Atman's eyes snapped to him, sharp and shaken. "It also reads… Two thousand seventy-seven years after the Cataclysm" Atman finished.

Kenzo raised his eyebrows. "Okay? I don't know what that is, but I'll assume it's old. Really old."

"…It is" Atman mumbled.

"Then why do you look so horrified?" Kenzo laughed.

"The inscriptions say something else. The purpose of all this" Atman said.

He lifted his gaze to the inscriptions one last time, then to Kenzo. His expression held something close to dread.

"To an unknown God"

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