Chapter 15: The One Who Betrays Light
The war room smelled like dust and incense.
Inside the Ecclesia Citadel, Archbishop Lior sat alone with the Twelve Cardinals. The chamber was lit only by a single beam of divine sunlight that poured from the stained glass above, casting fractured rainbows across their robes.
Two Flamebearers. One Arkborn. One Genesis Gate.
Cardinal Rema's voice cracked through the silence.
You know what this means. The ancient structure is reforming itself. The ExoSaint prophecy was never symbolic. It's literal.
Another cardinal whispered, We must contain them.
Lior raised a trembling hand.
No. We must prepare to sacrifice them.
Silence.
He continued, If the Third Seal breaks, there will be no more 'containment.' Only judgment.
And if they are the keys to this destruction… then they must never reach the Temple Mount.
Meanwhile, far below the Ecclesia, in the broken chapel ruins where Abraham first awakened the flame, Saral stood in silence.
She had returned alone.
Her fingers traced the old altar now overgrown with dust. The silver ring pulsed again on her hand, stronger this time.
Then it spoke.
A voice—not from above or below, but from within her.
Child of Rebekah. Bearer of the Ark. The one who ran shall return. And he shall be wrapped in righteousness… or rot.
Saral's heart pounded.
She pulled her fingers back. The altar shifted on its own.
The floor cracked open, revealing a scroll wrapped in white cloth, sealed with a glowing cross. She touched it.
Flashes.
Her father as a young man.
Standing with Archbishop Lior.
Holding a baby girl—*her*—over an altar.
And a voice of Lior from the past.
If the Gate ever opens… use her blood. Bind it. Rewrite the flame.
Saral stepped back, trembling.
All these years… she was a failsafe. A seal. Not a warrior.
Outside the chapel, footsteps approached.
Ezra.
You found it, didn't you? he asked.
She nodded, holding the scroll tightly.
I don't know what to believe anymore, she whispered. Who are we really fighting for?
Ezra looked her in the eyes. You're not fighting for the Church. You're fighting for the souls they threw away.
Back in the ExoSaint infirmary, Abraham stared into a mirror.
His reflection wasn't matching his movement.
It blinked late. Smiled when he didn't. Its eyes… were glowing red.
He gripped the sink.
Show yourself.
The reflection laughed.
I'm you. The you that will be left when faith burns out.
Then it shattered.
Blood dripped from Abraham's nose. His flame flickered inside his chest. The ring turned cold.
Somewhere far away, inside a cave of living rock, the Third Seal pulsed.
It was not a creature this time. It was a man.
Bound in golden chains. Eyes closed.
A former Saint.
His name lost in records.
He once bore the title ExoSaint Seraph-13.
He had betrayed Zion in the war 200 years ago.
His sentence: entombed alive in scriptsteel beneath the city, body preserved, soul sealed.
Now he opened his eyes.
A voice welcomed him.
Rise, Apostle of Dust. The Third Flame now dies.
Let the world remember what it means to fear the Light.
Back in Saral's room, the scroll began to glow.
The seal cracked.
A new prophecy appeared in her vision.
When the Third betrays the First, and the Ark opens its mouth, the flame shall falter, and the Gate will burn the righteous.
She stared out her window, toward the tower where Abraham had just collapsed.
No.
Not him.
Not now.
She ran.
But in the shadows of the citadel, Reuel was watching.
The prophecy is on schedule, he whispered. The Gate is weakening.
Soon, the Ark will call the heavens.
And the heavens… will not answer.
End of Chapter 15