**Delphi, Greece – The Sacred Pass**
The road to Delphi wound through jagged cliffs, the air thick with the scent of cypress and ancient prophecy. Ujjwal stood at the edge of the Phaedriades, the twin cliffs framing the Temple of Apollo, their peaks clawing at a sky bruised with storm clouds. His reforged body hummed with latent divinity, golden veins flickering beneath his skin like trapped lightning. Beside him, Anika adjusted her techno-gauntlet—a sleek fusion of Stygian iron and circuitry—while Karim stared hollow-eyed at the ruins, his gaze fixed on specters only he could see.
"**The dead are restless here,**" Karim murmured, his voice distant. "**They say the Oracle's voice was the first thing the Prism silenced.**"
Leo hefted his reforged shield, its Medusa-lotus hybrid glinting. "**Then let's make it the first thing we unsilence.**"
---
### **The Silent Council's Stronghold**
The Temple of Apollo lay desecrated. Silent Council banners hung from its Doric columns, and the sacred *adyton*—the Oracle's chamber—was now a fortress of steel and wires. Anika's drone buzzed overhead, transmitting schematics to her gauntlet. "They've rigged the entrance with mythic dampeners," she said, fingers dancing across holograms. "But Hephaestus's fire in my tech… I can override them."
She slammed her palm against the ground. A pulse of golden energy rippled out, and the dampeners sparked and died. The temple doors groaned open, revealing a corridor lined with biomechanical sentries—their flesh fused with bronze, eyes glowing Council-red.
Ujjwal stepped forward, divine fire coiling around his fists. "Let me."
The sentries charged. He moved like liquid light, dismantling them with precise strikes, their Stygian cores melting under his touch. But with each burst of power, the golden veins on his skin darkened, creeping toward his heart.
*Control. Balance.*
---
### **The Chamber of Echoes**
Inside the *adyton*, the air thrummed with residual prophecy. The Oracle's stone seat, the *Tripod*, was shattered, replaced by a pulsating machine—Hades' Helm, its obsidian surface etched with writhing souls.
"**It's a conduit,**" Anika whispered, her gauntlet scanning. "**The Council's channeling the Helm to manipulate the Underworld's borders.**"
Karim staggered, clutching his head. "**They're here… the Katabasis. The souls of those who never reached the afterlife.**" Shadows swirled, forming spectral warriors with hollow eyes.
Leo raised his shield, its blade-edge glowing. "**Eyes sharp, Spartan.**"
The Katabasis surged. Ujjwal's Trishula blazed, but the divine fire wavered—exhaustion and strain fraying his focus. A specter slashed his arm, its touch freezing his veins.
*You're not her,* the pearl taunted. *You'll fail like she did.*
---
### **The Vision**
Ujjwal's knees buckled as the chamber dissolved.
*He stood in a fractured realm, the Prism—a colossal, crystalline axis—splintering above him. His grandmother, young and fierce, battled a shadowy Asur legion, the Jyoti Mukta blazing in her hands. But the Prism's cracks spread, and with a scream, she channeled its light to repel the horde… shattering it completely. The blast consumed her, scattering the Godshards across time.*
*"You see now?"* Her voice echoed, grief-stricken. *"The Prism wasn't destroyed—it was sacrificed. And you must rebuild it."*
Ujjwal gasped back to reality, Anika's drone shielding him from a Katabasis strike. "Snap out of it!" she yelled.
He roared, unleashing a wave of divine fire. The Katabasis disintegrated, but the Helm's machine flared to life, its energy tearing a rift in the chamber floor.
---
### **Cerberus Unbound**
The rift vomited forth a monstrous fusion of myth and machine—Cerberus, its three heads snarling (one wolf, one serpent, one humanoid drone), its body a mass of cables and decaying flesh.
Anika's gauntlet whirred. "I'll hack the drone head! Leo, the wolf! Ujjwal—*kill the snake!*"
Leo charged, shield-blade shearing through the wolf head's jaw. Anika's techno-pulse jammed the drone head into a feedback loop. Ujjwal lunged at the serpent, Trishula blazing—but his fire sputtered. The golden veins now covered half his chest, burning acidic.
*Sacrifice.*
He channeled the last of his energy into the spear, impaling the serpent's skull. Cerberus collapsed, the rift sealing with a thunderclap.
---
### **The Helm's Curse**
The chamber shuddered as the Helm's machine detonated, releasing a wave of black energy. Karim screamed, clutching his temples. "**The barrier—it's breaking!**"
Outside, the earth trembled. Ghostly figures clawed from the soil—an army of Katabasis, freed by the Helm's corruption.
Anika hauled Ujjwal up. "We need to go. *Now!*"
Leo sliced through a Council mercenary, his shield deflecting spectral claws. "**Delphi's lost! To the jeep!**"
---
### **Epilogue – The Ascent**
The jeep fishtailed down Mount Parnassus, Katabasis spirits wailing in pursuit. Ujjwal slumped against the window, his body a map of golden cracks. Anika rigged a pulse grenade from her gauntlet, buying them seconds. Karim stared at the storming sky, whispering to ghosts.
Leo gripped the wheel, Spartans' oath echoing in his mind: *"Return the Aegis, or die with honor."*