Valen hung against the central pillar, his wrists bound by chains that pulsed with a soft, rhythmic light. That same light beat inside the Inquisitor’s silver mask. A circuit, closed, and every pulse dragged Valen’s HP further from the 19% where it had been when Eloy first read the number.

Maya’s palms snapped forward.

Wind tore through the junction chamber like a blade through cloth. Stone dust erupted from the floor in a blinding curtain, scattering ancient pebbles across the uneven ground.

The gale screamed against pillars carved with symbols that predated the Inquisition by centuries. Visibility collapsed to arm’s length.

"Move!"

Maya’s sleeves whipped around her forearms, fabric snapping against the strain. She held the wind gale with every ounce of wind affinity she had, and it wasn’t enough. The dust churned, thick and choking, and the Inquisitor didn’t move.

The silver mask glowed through the storm. Steady. Unblinking.

The chains around Valen’s wrists pulsed. Once. In perfect rhythm.

"Wind. Predictable."

The Inquisitor didn’t raise her hands. Her posture remained unchanged beneath the dust. She was waiting. She had always been waiting.

Isolde exploded through the gale.

Her boots ground stone, each impact loud in the howling wind. Muscle and momentum carried her forward, a straight physical charge aimed at the Inquisitor’s ribs.

"Face me."

Isolde struck the Inquisitor in the abdomen with the palm and heel of her hand. Her body was crouched, fully committed, with all her momentum directed forward, without any retreat. The Inquisitor’s forearm rose quickly to meet her blow. The impact generated a shockwave that radiated outward, dispersing the remaining dust.

The Inquisitor’s masked face tracked Isolde’s approach with mechanical precision. Her body turned slightly to meet the onslaught, her shoulders tilting just enough to absorb the blow. The movement created a narrow gap in the pillar behind her.

Three seconds, maybe less.

"Now."

Eloy broke from his position. His ankle screamed, the injured joint buckling once on the uneven stone, but he pushed through it. He sprinted through the clearing dust, closing the distance to the central pillar with his hand outstretched toward Valen’s chains.

Isolde’s palm-heel connected with the Inquisitor’s forearm block. The shockwave of impact blew the remaining dust clear, revealing Eloy already at the pillar with his hand outstretched toward Valen’s chains.

Twenty-two percent. One shot. If the stone is just stone, this works. This need to work.

Eloy slapped his palm against the central pillar. He activated Clip. His MP burned from 22% down to 4% in a single, violent motion. A spatial distortion warped the air around his arm. The stone rippled like water beneath his fingertips.

"No—don’t—"

Valen strained against the glowing chains. His bruised throat barely produced sound. His HP had already dropped below 19%, the number ticking lower with every pulse of the circuit.

Eloy’s fingers passed through the stone. He brushed Valen’s shoulder. The extraction was almost within grasp. He could feel the rough fabric of Valen’s coat under his fingertips. His HUD flickered with spatial distortion warnings, red text crawling across his peripheral vision as his phased hand neared Valen’s chained wrist.

"I’ve got you!"

Eloy leaned further into the pillar. His bandaged right arm trembled as he reached deeper toward Valen’s bonds. He could feel the chains now, the cold metal links vibrating with the same frequency as the mask’s glow. Seconds away. Maybe one second.

The Inquisitor raised one hand without looking away from Isolde.

Gravitational density spiked through the central pillar.

The stone compressed around Eloy’s phased arm, gravity crushing the rock until it became impossibly solid mid-phase. His arm was trapped inside matter that had stopped yielding. Valen’s chains rattled as the gravitational surge shook the pillar, causing the circuit to flare even brighter.

"Your dirty tricks doesn’t work here."

The Inquisitor’s fingers curled. The pillar’s surface hardened further, rejecting Eloy’s phased matter with absolute force.

Eloy’s momentum carried him forward. His skull cracked against the gravity-dense stone, forehead meeting suddenly solid rock with a wet, hollow sound.

His HUD flashed red.

[ EXPLOIT FAILED: INSUFFICIENT MP TO OVERCOME GRAVITATIONAL DENSITY ]

Blood welled from Eloy’s hairline as he rebounded off the pillar.

His phased arm snapped back into physical form with a sickening jolt, the spatial distortion collapsing around him like a burst bubble. He stumbled backward from the pillar, clutching his head with one hand, his vision swimming in red-tinted waves.

"Damn it—"

His knees hit the stone. He couldn’t stay upright, not with his MP at 4% and his skull ringing like a struck bell. Dust particles froze in mid-air around the chamber, each grain hanging suspended as the Inquisitor’s gravitational field intensified.

[heroklak]: gravitational magic??? hell nah bro

[golfwang4EVER]: it’s from the earth affinity right? like the ultimate form or some dumb sh like that

[IsoldeSimp47]: the Inquisition is really no joke jesus christ

Eloy stumbled backward from the pillar, blood trickling down his temple, as the Inquisitor’s raised hand clenched into a fist and dust particles froze in mid-air around the chamber.

The Inquisitor slammed her fist downward.

Tripled gravity detonated across the entire junction chamber. The force knocked Eloy, Isolde, and Maya to their knees all at once with a thunderous crack of stone. Stone dust settled in heavy arcs beneath the triple weight, each particle slamming into the floor like lead shot fired into mud.

"Unh—"

Maya crashed to one knee, clutching the blue ledgers and Inquisition case file pages against her chest. She curled around them, protecting the documents from the stone even as her own body buckled under the pressure.

Isolde’s knee hit the stone hard enough to chip it. Her palms slapped the floor, spine locked rigid.

"Not... done."

Isolde’s arms shook. She forced her head up, eyes fixed on the Inquisitor through the settling dust. She couldn’t stand, but she wouldn’t bow either. Physics demanded submission and she refused it with the set of her jaw and the white-knuckled grip of her fingers against the stone.

Valen’s chains glowed brighter.

The mask’s silver light pulsed in perfect sync, and his HP drained lower, the number ticking down in Eloy’s peripheral vision. Valen’s breath came in shallow, forced gasps as the draining circuit pulled more life from his pinned form. His head lolled, but his eyes stayed open. Conscious. Watching.

The mask pulsed with light. Its glow matched the rhythm of Valen’s chains exactly. One circuit, uninterrupted, even while the Inquisitor fought.

"I have heard much of you in recent days."

The Inquisitor spoke without breathlessness. Without strain. Tripling gravity across a fifty-meter chamber required no more effort from her than turning a page.

"The infamous... Speedrunner."

[SpeedrunGod]: she knows?

[wo1flion]: SHE KNOWS????

[LMAO_cat]: SHE KNOWS!!!!

Eloy’s breath stopped. Maya’s head jerked up, eyes wide, the blue ledgers forgotten against her chest. Isolde’s expression didn’t change. The word meant nothing to her. Valen’s eyes found Eloy from the pillar, confused, pained, sharp with the effort of staying conscious.

The Speedrunner title was never spoken in any Inquisition record, any Academy document, any public context. Only two people in that room were supposed to know about that title.

"...That’s not on any wanted posters... How do you even know that."

Eloy said flat, his face pressed toward the stone floor, still unable to lift his head under the gravity.

"I didn’t—"

Maya fought the gravity, muscles straining to lift her head enough to meet Eloy’s eyes. Her voice was crushed thin under the pressure, barely audible above the groan of stone settling under tripled weight.

"You are correct. It isn’t."

The Inquisitor didn’t look at Maya. Her attention remained fixed on Eloy, the silver mask still, the glow pulsing.

Once. Twice. Synchronized with the chains’ dim flare behind her.

Eloy’s HUD flickered. The red blood trail marker that had led them here pulsed once, then went dark. Valen’s HP sat at 18%.

The chain glow and the mask glow pulsed together, one circuit, uninterrupted, draining life from the man chained to the pillar while the Inquisitor stood untouched in the center of her own gravity well.