Siya stood before the chamber in absolute silence.
For a moment, she simply stared at it.
A year ago, she had abandoned this place in haste, burying secrets inside it that were never meant to awaken again. But now… the chamber no longer looked like something built by human hands.
It looked alive.
Dust and ash covered the metallic walls like layers of rotting skin. The entire structure trembled faintly beneath the poisoned wasteland, as though some ancient creature slept beneath it, breathing through rusted steel and fractured stone. The air itself felt diseased.
Siya narrowed her eyes.
Inside her mind, two voices clashed violently.
Don't enter.
You have to.
One part of her warned that something was terribly wrong. The other whispered that unless she stepped inside, she would never discover whether the one she had come searching for was truly still alive.
"Calm down, Siya…" she muttered to herself under her breath. "You're going inside."
The moment her foot crossed the threshold, the dead chamber awakened.
One by one, the dormant lights flickered to life.
Ancient systems rebooted with mechanical groans. Rusted terminals flashed weakly. Broken cables sparked through the darkness like dying veins carrying the last remains of electricity.
The entire facility seemed to recognize her presence.
Siya walked forward slowly.
With every step, fragments of the past clawed their way back into her memory.
Blood.
Sirens.
Screams.
The smell of burning flesh.
She ignored them all and continued deeper into the structure until she reached a section no one else knew existed.
A hidden room.
Even Ali, Andy, and Maan had never seen it.
The sealed door slid open with a deafening metallic cry.
The room beyond was horrifying.
Dry roots had burst through the walls and spread across the ceiling like giant veins strangling the chamber from within. Thick spider webs hung everywhere. Dust floated through the stale air like ash after a funeral pyre.
And the smell…
The stench was unbearable.
Rotting infected creatures.
Something had died here long ago.
At the center of the room stood a massive steel pillar surrounded by shattered iron chains. The restraints had once been powerful enough to imprison monsters.
Now they hung broken.
Siya's eyes widened.
"No…" she whispered.
Then louder—
"No… no, no, no…!"
"You really think I could escape Siya's prison so easily?"
The voice echoed from the darkness.
A familiar laugh followed.
Slowly, a figure stepped forward.
Trikala.
He looked thinner, wilder, almost feral, but the crooked amusement on his face remained unchanged.
"I broke the chains," he said with a grin, "but I couldn't break your ridiculous door."
For several seconds Siya simply stared at him.
Then suddenly—
She smiled.
It was not warmth.
It was relief mixed with fury.
"I knew you wouldn't escape this chamber," she said coldly. "Clara completed the task I gave her perfectly."
Her mind drifted backward.
One Year Earlier
"Clara," Siya had said seriously, "if anyone ever asks you to open the chamber… you must understand that danger has already arrived."
Clara stood silently listening.
"The first thing you will do," Siya continued, "is lock him inside the hidden room I created."
Clara hesitated.
"And remember… we may never come back."
There had been fear in Clara's eyes then.
"So this is truly the end for me… isn't it?" she asked softly.
Siya had remained silent for a few moments.
Then she stepped closer and answered with unwavering confidence—
"I won't let anything happen to you, Clara."
The memory shattered.
Back in the present, Siya's expression darkened.
"Where is Clara, Trikala?"
Trikala laughed mockingly.
"How would I know?" he said casually. "I've been searching for her myself. That coward locked me in here and disappeared."
The next second, Siya moved.
Her hand wrapped around his throat so fast even Trikala failed to react.
She slammed him against the wall.
"Watch your tongue," she hissed.
The temperature inside the chamber dropped instantly.
"You should thank Clara for locking you in this room at the right moment. Otherwise Time itself would have devoured you long ago."
Her grip tightened.
"My instincts tell me she's still alive somewhere."
Her eyes burned with terrifying intensity.
"Pray that I'm right, Trikala… because if Clara is dead…"
She leaned closer.
"I will end you with my own hands."
For once, even Trikala stopped smiling.
Then he slowly raised both hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright," he coughed. "Relax. I'd also prefer the woman who saved my life to remain alive."
He brushed dust off his clothes dramatically.
"Now can we leave this depressing room? I'm getting bored."
Still grumbling to himself, he walked toward the exit.
Then—
"Go ahead," Siya said calmly behind him. "Take one more step outside."
Trikala frowned.
"What?"
"Do it," she replied.
"Step outside this chamber… and your bones will melt into liquid before you even scream."
The amusement vanished from his face instantly.
He tested the edge carefully.
The moment his foot neared the poisoned ground beyond the chamber—
Siya yanked him backward violently.
Trikala stumbled, breathing heavily.
"Are you insane?!" he shouted. "Another second and I'd be dead!"
Siya merely smirked.
Then suddenly—
Her expression changed.
Far beyond the chamber entrance, through the dead wasteland outside…
A gigantic storm of dust was approaching.
No.
Not a storm.
A moving wall of destruction.
The poisoned tornado devoured everything in its path.
Siya reacted instantly.
A golden shield of divine energy formed around her hands. Ancient symbols ignited across its surface before she thrust it toward Trikala.
"Take this," she ordered.
Trikala caught it instinctively.
"Go directly to Kashi."
His eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"Tell them Siya sent you."
She turned toward the approaching vortex.
"And tell them… I'm coming."
The chamber trembled violently.
"Don't stop moving," she continued rapidly. "Your energy will guide you to Kashi's gate automatically. No matter what happens, keep walking."
Trikala stared at her.
"And you?"
Siya's gaze locked onto the monstrous storm outside.
"My work here isn't finished yet."
The tornado was almost upon them now.
The ground itself screamed.
"Now go," Siya commanded sharply. "You cannot stay here."
Before Trikala could argue—
She grabbed him and hurled him away with terrifying force.
His body vanished into the wasteland, protected only by the divine shield surrounding him.
Then the storm arrived.
Within seconds, the massive vortex swallowed the entire chamber whole.