Absolution Labyrinth

Fissure of Frost

The Antarctic crevasse yawned like an ax wound. Alys' Frostfire Scepter bridged the gap with crystalline energy as Kain's silver spine vibrated, sand seeping into ice to map the hive-like structure below—seven kilometers down, the Penance Vault pulsed behind neural shock grids.

"Radiation levels here liquefy bone marrow." Selene's mechanical eye scanned the abyss, her joints crackling in the cold. "How did Cinder even bury anything here?"

Alys plunged her scepter into the ice. Frostfire energy snaked through the fissure until hitting a node. Fluorescent mucus erupted, solidifying into twelve ice coffins—each cradling fragments of Ilana's genetic code.

Matriarch Cipher

The vault's doors were interlocking coffins, their surfaces etched with Lullaby sheet music. When Alys hummed the tune, the ice cracked. Ilana's specter emerged, a judgment sword protruding from her abdomen, silver blood etching church lab coordinates into the frost.

"Mother..." Alys reached out. Her birthmark flared as genetic shards flooded her body. Frostfire runes crawled up the scepter, blooming into a twin rose—ice petals cradling a magma core.

Kain's spine erupted, the silver dragon shredding coffins. Genetic fragments coalesced into Leah's apparition in its claws: "Don't touch the blood!"

Cinder's Gambit

Gears boomed beneath them. The vault's core was a colossal chessboard. Cinder's hologram lounged on a throne, toying with pieces forged from melted church crucifixes: "Let's finish our game from twenty years ago."

Pieces materialized—black side swarmed with chainsaw-spined Godslayers, white side sprouting fleshy trees Kain had razed. Every black piece Alys froze oozed green liquid from her birthmark; every white piece Kain's dragon destroyed grafted chainsaw segments onto his spine.

"Gene-coded combat sim." Selene hacked the board's systems. "Lose, and we become raw material for new pieces."

Twin Roses

As Kain's silver tide neared checkmate, Cinder flipped the board. All pieces dissolved into Ilana's DNA chains, binding Alys. The twin rose detonated, frost and lava spearing up the chains to pin Cinder's hologram to his throne.

"Always the clever one..." He tossed an ice die before dissolving. "What the church fears most lies within."

The vault collapsed. Alys grabbed the die as silver blood from her birthmark synced with Kain's spine. An ancient roar shook the ice depths. Inside the die, four glyphs pulsed:

"CRADLE PROTOCOL."