Of everything Alarion expected to find on the far side of that door, sunlight was not on the list. Monsters, treasures, even deities had been on his list. But the warm rays of the mid-afternoon sun beating down on him in the middle of the night, more than a mile underground? Preposterous.

And that was only the start.

A city lay on the other side of that door. The largest Alarion had ever seen. The largest Sierra had ever seen. Set inside a bowl-shaped valley, the metropolis was so enormous that neither Awakened could fully grasp its size on their first attempt. There were so many buildings and at such a scale that Alarion had no frame of reference from which to work.

Those closest to their entry, built into the sloped side of the valley, were large, multi-story structures on par with the manor house where Alarion had been staying, but built in the hundreds. Those further toward the city core, buildings that initially looked minuscule, were, on second glance, actually towering complexes that dwarfed the largest buildings in Ashad-Vitri, or even the most palatial ruins of the Old City.

At the core of the city stood a construct so large that Alarion could not compare it to a building at all, as no living thing could have had a hand in its making.

It was a metallic mountain in the form of a structure. Vaguely dagger-like in its shape, its point had been driven into the center of the city at a slight angle. From there, it ascended for thousands of feet until it flared into a triangular upper portion, much larger than its thin stem. Another building sat at the pinnacle, a pyramid that would have been among the largest structures Alarion had ever seen, but appeared tiny atop such a mega-structure.

It was a thing of awe-inspiring beauty. Its outer frame was a silver-white metal with a matte finish covered in 'thin' decorative lines that must have themselves been the size of buildings. Its inner workings were a dull utilitarian grey that glowed with the same arcane light they had seen so much of as of late.

The structure was also damaged. Large gouges had been torn out of the metal, particularly higher up on its left side, indicative of some long-ago violence.

Perhaps that had also been what had devastated the city.

The valley was riddled with cracked and upturned earth, as though some enormous thing had struck it repeatedly until it fractured. What had once been a structured, ordered city became a nightmare of sinkholes, crevices, and sharp cliff faces. Buildings had toppled by the hundreds, while the thousands still standing did so in varying states of disarray.

Some horrible calamity had happened here, worse than even the brutality that had shattered the Old City.

The nearby corpse, however, was a more pressing concern.

Alarion had overlooked the body in his moment of wonder, but Sierra had not. She had knelt next to the desiccated remains, brushing aside clothing in a clinical search for what had killed the man. She did not have to look all that hard, not with a familiar fist-sized hole punched neatly through his chest.

Just as concerning, to Alarion at least, were the colors the body wore. Teal and violet.

"What happened to him?" Alarion asked.

"I did," a voice wheezed.

Alarion's greatsword was in the air before he'd even finished turning. The blade reached its maximum size barely an instant before it impacted an invisible barrier two feet in front of the revenant and spun off to the ground.

The bespectacled revenant's clever smirk faltered. Barrier or no, Alarion had nearly taken its head clean off, and the sudden violence had startled it.

"You really should-"

Another flying dagger, this one at a more normal size, interrupted the revenant's thought process as Alarion forced it to conjure an additional barrier. Then another to block a third thrown weapon. Only a warding hand from Sierra, who seemed to have a slightly less visceral reaction, stopped Alarion from trying to force the matter further with his fists.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I'd like to know what your insides taste li-" The revenant visibly stiffened as it rolled its shoulders back, straightened its posture, and took a deep breath. When it continued, its words sounded less low and guttural. More alive. Almost human. "Apologies. I'd like to know where you found him, for a start. The boy seems more infested than I am. Or at least more bloodthirsty."

"What do you want?" Sierra repeated coldly.

This time it sighed, a distinctly human reaction from a thing that was not at all human despite wearing the shape of one. He was tall, broad, and once handsome, though the cold, dead look of his skin had done much to eliminate the latter. His hair was dark, short, and well-kept, his clothing a stern-looking Ashadi suit twenty years past its fashion and considerably well-worn. A pocket watch ticked away on its hip, while one hand was occupied by the ledger they had seen earlier.

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"The same deal I offered to the dead man. And others like him. That they refused. A simple give and take and take and take." Again, the dead man writhed within his skin before continuing at a measured tone, though the cadence was all wrong. "You do what I ask, and I will kill you and rend… I will let you live and leave."

Alarion looked to Sierra, who ignored the fiend's outbursts in favor of staying focused. "We are listening."

"Already more amenable than your predecessor. This is fortuitous." Despite the pleasant selection and even tone of the words, the revenant's expression was not pleased. It was a look of discomfort and distress, like someone trying to conceal an aching wound. "You are caught in a trap. My trap. My jaws. The pillar."

"What about it?" Alarion asked.

"There are… defenses. I need you to stop them. Smash them. Break them!" The undead thing growled in frustration and turned its head, keeping the pair only in its peripheral vision as it spoke through clenched teeth. "Keep it intact, if you can. But disable them."

"You're stronger than us," Sierra replied. It wasn't a question, though her follow-up was. "If you can kill us, why do you need us?"

"Much stronger," the revenant said with murderous satisfaction, even as Sierra seemed skeptical. "But you are alive, for now. This place is weak. Old. Decrepit. Dying. And the spire does not hate you the way that I hate y… the way it hates me. I simply wish to continue my research."

Sierra's eyes narrowed. "What research?"

"The research is for me, not for meat!"

Alarion took a wary step forward.

"You would not… understand," the revenant continued, struggling to form words as its body shook and its head thrashed. "You stand in the Protectorate of the Three Together. It Who Knows Beginnings. It Who Knows Boundaries. It Who Knows Change! These things are beyond you and beyond my ability to eviscera... educate. Will you do this task for me? Or will I feast upon your bones?"

"What guarantee do we have that you'll follow through?"

An instant later, a System alert flashed for both Alarion and Sierra:

Unbar The Gate [Dual-Binding Geas]

Description: The Revenant Lamesh has charged you with dying horribly in your attempt to disable the defenses that prevent his entry into the spire at the center of the Protectorate of the Three Together.

Success Conditions: Disable the defenses located somewhere within the spire. The rewards for this quest will vary depending on how you disable the defenses.

Failure Conditions: Return to Lamesh without completing this quest.

Reward: The Revenant Lamesh will shatter your skull upon the ground and feast upon the contents within.

Penalty: Your torture will be unending.

The notification vanished almost as quickly as it had come, only to be replaced by another.

Unbar The Gate [Dual-Binding Geas]

Description: The Revenant Lamesh has charged you with disabling the defenses that prevent his entry into the spire at the center of the Protectorate of the Three Together.

Success Conditions: Disable the defenses located somewhere within the spire. The rewards for this quest will vary depending on how you disable the defenses.

Failure Conditions: Return to Lamesh without completing this quest.

Basic Reward: The Revenant Lamesh will release you from this place.

Advanced Reward: One Rare Revenant Box.

Penalty: Your torture will be unending.

Do you accept the terms of this Geas? Y/N

Note: A Dual-Binding Geas cannot be abandoned by either party. Failure to abide by the reward conditions of a bestowed Geas will result in instant death for the Skill user.

Sierra and Alarion exchanged glances, but it was Alarion who spoke first. "This won't work."

"Your life, Flesh, is not enough of a reward?" the revenant seemed almost insulted.

"No," Sierra shook her head, noticing the same issue as Alarion. "Your Geas is not specific. I do not want to be released missing limbs, or in two decades. Or for you to try and worm your mind into the idea that you're releasing us from this mortal coil."

It laughed, a sickening, diseased sound that set Alarion's teeth on edge. "Vitrians. I should have slaughtered… known not to play that game."

Basic Reward: The Revenant Lamesh will, without harm on his part, that of his minions, or any attempt at deceit, escort you outside the Protectorate. Once outside, he will disable the dimensional lock, allowing the suppressed effect of your Escape Icon to take you home.

"Will that be suffici-ent?" The revenant was almost vibrating now, its eyes turned up toward the fog-filled sky above them. Anywhere but on the pair of them.

"Yes. We have three weeks of food left. Either we will succeed by then or starve," Sierra said, "you can go."

Despite balking at the dismissive tone, Lamesh did not stay to argue. It turned and exited, as fast as it could, through the same portal the pair had used to enter the bizarre 'protectorate'. The door slammed closed amidst the dull grey stone of the interior wall, its noise echoing across the city as Sierra and Alarion were left alone once more.

"The tower, then?" Alarion asked as he moved about, collecting his impotent weapons.

"Eventually," she agreed. "We should skirt the edges, get a feel for what sort of threats are in the city."

"And how to get across," Alarion mused. The damage to the city below was beyond extensive, and from their vantage point, Alarion could not see any straight shot that would get them to the spire.

Such practical concerns dominated their conversation as they began circling the outskirts of the immense city. It was only after he'd run out of immediate concerns to address that Alarion finally allowed his mind to wander. And it was only then that he asked the obvious.

"Sierra. Why is there a dead Vitrian here?"

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