Chapter 82: The Temple of Wrath
The Velkarth Basin stretched before them like the cracked bones of a dying god—sun-bleached, wind-swept, and unnaturally still.
Isaac and Lira walked side by side, their boots crunching over shale and faded gravel paths that no longer connected to any known road. The map from Renall was accurate—or had been. But now, the terrain seemed to shift subtly behind them with every turn, every blink.
"Didn't we pass that broken ridge before?" Lira asked, wiping dust from her brow.
"Could be a trick of the basin," Isaac said. "Or it's watching us."
"You're oddly calm about that possibility."
"I've been calm since the day I woke up dead," he muttered.
The sun dipped low in the sky, yet no clouds passed. The light hung—frozen—like a painting with no artist.
They reached the point marked in red ink on the map: a narrow ridgeline that overlooked a supposed ravine. But there was no ravine.
There was a fold in the land.
As they approached, the cliff face split without warning—quietly, almost politely—unveiling a slope of black stone that spiraled downward into a hollow carved into the earth. Shadows swam across the surface of the ruin below, though nothing moved.
A temple lay half-submerged in the center of that unnatural hollow. It was massive—cathedral-like—but twisted. Its arches curled inward, its outer walls were veined with burn scars and thorned vines, and the upper tower looked melted by heat that had long since died.
Lira stopped walking.
"…Isaac."
"I see it."
They descended slowly, weapons not drawn, but hands hovering near hilts. The air grew heavier, the silence thicker. It wasn't just a lack of sound—it was absence. No birds. No wind. Even the sound of their boots seemed swallowed.
When they stepped within twenty meters of the front arch, a faint vibration passed through the ground.
Then came the sound.
A flat, mechanical chime in Isaac's ear. One he'd never heard before.
[SYSTEM WARNING]You have entered a Zone Severed from World Threads.Detection: Forbidden Temple – Alignment: Wrath.Patron: SATAN, Great Demon of Fury.
Lira's eyes widened as her interface flared briefly and then dimmed. "Did yours just—?"
"Yeah," Isaac replied, voice low.
He stared up at the structure. From this close, it didn't look abandoned. It looked asleep. Waiting. The stone steps didn't lead upward so much as inward—into an impossible fold where angles broke, and space felt uncertain.
Lira took a step back. "Let's… think for a second. This wasn't on any guild record. That's not just a ruin—that's a demon temple. One of the big ones."
"I know."
"We should mark this down and report it," she said quickly. "Bring back a sanctioned team. Seal it. Hell, burn it from orbit if we can."
Isaac didn't respond. He glanced at the map again.
The page was blank.
Lira noticed. "Wait. It was working a minute ago—"
"It doesn't want us leaving," Isaac said quietly.
She looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
He turned slowly and pointed back the way they came.
There was no trail.
No ridgeline. No sky beyond the basin.
Just stone. Wall. Seamless.
"...We didn't enter a zone," Isaac said. "It folded around us."
Lira's breath caught.
"I knew something felt off. I thought it was the terrain—but it was time. Space. It's been closing since we got within range."
She took a step forward and touched the air where the slope used to be.
It rippled like liquid, then solidified.
"We're trapped?" she asked, voice thin.
"Cut off," Isaac corrected. "No signal. No map. No exit."
They both looked back toward the ruin.
It hadn't moved.
But now, it felt closer.
Lira swallowed. "Still want to go in?"
Isaac exhaled. "Do we have a choice?"
She hesitated. Then nodded once. "Then let's find out what a demon leaves behind when the world forgets it exists."
Isaac stepped forward.
And the temple breathed.