The gate did not lead to salvation.
It led to memory.
To pain.
To a realm where blood was the air and thought was the enemy.
Kiro stepped through first—and immediately dropped to his knees.
He was no longer in the City of Blood.
He was standing inside something alive, or once had been—an endless corridor of pulsing flesh and bone, as wide as a ship and lit only by the slow, rhythmic pulse of divine heartbeats long stopped.
The Blood God.
His progenitor.
His end and beginning.
All around him, the walls breathed slowly. Runes twitched like muscle spasms. Nerves hung like vines. And a pressure—deep and cruel—pressed down on his soul like he had returned to a prison carved from the bones of divinity.
Behind him, the rest of the 600 emerged, stumbling, some vomiting, others falling to their knees as memories not their own flooded their vision.
"Do not speak," Kiro said, voice hoarse. "This is sacred ground."
Mile 1 – The Scream of a Star
They walked in silence.
And the first vision struck them.
The walls parted. A thousand glowing eyes opened across the corridor. Time fractured.
Suddenly, they were there—witnesses to the moment the Blood God fell.
A star-sized being of crimson flame, torn apart in orbit of a black hole, its screams carried through dimensions. Empires fell in its death throes. Gods turned their faces away. And something else—ancient, hungry—fed on its last breath.
Many soldiers fell weeping.
Others begged for the memory to stop.
But it did not.
Mile 3 – The Chains of Betrayal
Kiro's pace did not slow, even as he passed beneath great arches of crystallized blood.
Visions came faster now.
The Blood God bound in chains not forged by mortals, but by his own children—the first Apostles. Kiro watched their betrayal as if standing among them. He saw the knives pierce their creator. He felt the betrayal not as history...
...but as family.
He dropped to one knee.
Kan was at his side instantly. "You need to rest."
"I need to remember," Kiro whispered. "He suffered for what I am. I won't forget."
Mile 7 – The Mouth of the Void
They reached the heart.
A vast cavern where the Blood God's actual heart had once pulsed. Now it was hollow, echoing with whispers. Not just from the past—but from the Void.
A gateway stood in the center. Surrounded by rib-like walls, carved with names none of them could read. The exit. Reality lay just beyond.
But something watched them from within the heart-chamber.
A creature made of nothing but hands and tongues. A memory-eater. It slithered forward, lured by their fresh thoughts.
Kiro did not wait.
He screamed a bloodword, one not taught, but remembered.
The walls responded.
A spear of divine bone shot from the ground, impaling the beast mid-lunge. It hissed, decayed, and vanished into smoke.
Final Passage – A River of Names
To pass through the exit, the System demanded one final act:
"To leave the corpse of your god, you must give his death meaning. Speak his name."
None knew it.
Only Kiro.
He stepped forward, his voice low. "His name was Orkanath."
And as he spoke it, the blood river flowed. The Gate tore itself open—this time without pain—and showed stars on the other side.
Realspace.
Safety.
Possibility.
The New World – Drop Site Unknown
One by one, the survivors crossed the threshold.
And dropped.
Through atmosphere.
Through burning sky.
They crashed into a field of blue grass and golden trees under a shattered moon.
Realspace.
A hidden world.
Untouched.
Kiro landed last, cloak smoking, eyes hollow.
He turned to the Gate—now just bone—and watched it crumble behind him, lost forever.
And finally, he whispered to the wind:
"Rest, Father. I'll finish what you couldn't."