Cain braced himself as the gate trembled beneath his touch, the engravings flaring to life with an intensity that burned against his skin. The air vibrated with a force that sent cracks through the stone beneath his feet. A deep, resonant hum filled the chamber, not just a sound but a feeling, something that reached into the very marrow of his bones.
The seal was breaking.
The Titan Core within him responded immediately, its pulsing energy syncing with the growing power within the gate. He could feel the connection as if something on the other side was reaching back toward him. It wasn't just an ancient lock—it was a prison, a barrier holding something vast and forgotten.
Cain gritted his teeth, pressing forward as the engravings brightened. The force pushing back against him was immense, resisting, fighting to remain closed. But something had already shifted. The Abyss had changed.
The stone cracked beneath his palm. The moment it did, the seal gave way.
A burst of energy erupted from the gate, sending a shockwave outward that sent Cain flying backward. His body slammed into the cold ground, pain lancing through his spine as the chamber shook violently. The mist recoiled, pulling away like a living thing retreating from something far worse.
The gate split open.
Beyond it, darkness pulsed.
Not the endless void of the Abyss, not the heavy, suffocating mist that had clung to the ruins, but something deeper, something ancient. It was not empty. It moved, breathed, watched.
Cain pushed himself up, his muscles screaming in protest. His breath came fast and ragged as he forced his body upright. The Titan Core burned within him, pulsing erratically, reacting to the force spilling from beyond the gate.
And then—the voice came.
"Who… breaks the seal?"
The words did not echo in the chamber. They did not come from beyond the gate. They came from everywhere. From within the stone, from the mist, from the very air itself. A voice layered over itself, distant and near, old and ageless.
Cain swallowed hard, his fingers tightening into fists. He didn't answer. He wasn't sure he could.
The darkness within the gate shifted. A figure began to emerge, its form coalescing from the void itself. It did not walk. It did not rise. It simply became.
First, the outline—a humanoid form, but too tall, too thin, its proportions stretched unnaturally. Then the details—skin like fractured obsidian, cracked with pulsing lines of gold, veins of molten energy flowing beneath the surface. Its face was smooth, featureless, save for the faintest indentations where eyes should have been.
Cain's chest tightened. The weight of its presence was overwhelming. The Titan Core within him screamed, reacting violently to whatever this being was.
The figure tilted its head. Its hollow gaze settled upon him.
"You… are not one of us."
Cain gritted his teeth. "No." His voice was hoarse, but steady. "I'm not."
The figure moved.
One moment, it stood beyond the gate. The next, it was closer, though Cain had not seen it take a step. It had not teleported, had not blurred—it had simply changed where it was.
Cain's pulse hammered against his ribs. His grip on his weapon tightened.
"Yet, you carry our remnants."
The Titan Core pulsed violently in response. The heat within him surged, no longer a steady flame but a raging inferno, reacting as if recognizing something familiar, something kin.
Cain braced himself. He didn't understand this being, but every fiber of his being told him that he was standing before something dangerous.
The figure lifted a hand.
The moment it did, Cain moved.
He reacted purely on instinct, Titan energy igniting through his veins as he launched himself sideways. A fraction of a second later, the space where he had stood collapsed inward, the very air folding in on itself, the stone disintegrating into nothing.
It hadn't attacked. It had erased.
Cain didn't stop. He rolled, coming up on one knee, energy flaring through his limbs as he tightened his grip on his weapon. The Titan Core burned, its power coursing through him, filling his muscles with raw force.
He lunged.
The energy in his weapon surged as he swung, the force behind his strike enough to shatter solid stone. His aim was true, his movements faster than humanly possible. The blade cut through the air—
And stopped.
Cain's weapon hovered inches from the figure's chest, frozen in place. The energy surrounding it flickered, unraveling like threads dissolving into the void.
The figure tilted its head again.
"Crude."
Cain had less than a second to react before the force hit him.
It wasn't an attack in the way he understood. There was no impact, no strike. One moment, he was standing. The next, his body was gone.
No feeling. No sensation.
For a terrifying heartbeat, Cain ceased to exist.
And then he was slammed back into himself, his body thrown against the far wall of the chamber. He hit the stone hard, pain exploding through his ribs. Blood filled his mouth as he collapsed onto one knee, gasping for breath.
The figure had not moved.
"You are… incomplete."
Cain coughed, wiping blood from his lips. His body ached, but he forced himself up. His vision blurred for a second, then sharpened. The Titan Core was still burning, still responding, but now it was erratic, uncertain.
His hands curled into fists. He had faced death too many times since falling into the Abyss. He had fought, bled, survived against creatures that should have torn him apart. He had awakened something inside him, something vast and forgotten.
And he was not going to die here.
The figure took another step forward, the air around it distorting.
Cain exhaled slowly.
Then, for the first time, he reached deeper into the Titan Core.
The power within him responded instantly, but he did not let it rage freely. He controlled it, directing it, focusing it, shaping it into something more.
His breathing steadied. The pain in his ribs dulled. The fire in his veins no longer burned—it flowed.
And when he opened his eyes, they burned with the same golden light that had once filled the Titans themselves.
The figure stopped.
For the first time, it hesitated.
Cain took a step forward.
"Let's see how incomplete I really am."