The resistance has made their base in the old temple crypts.

It’s the last place anyone would look—beneath the very building where you sought refuge on the night of the ceremony. The irony isn’t lost on you.

Elder Corvus embraces you when you emerge from the tunnel. He looks older than you remember, the lines on his face deeper, his shoulders bent with a weight that wasn’t there before.

“You came back,” he says. “We hoped, but hope has been in short supply.”

“What happened? After the ceremony—”

“Varek happened.” Corvus leads you through the crypts, past dozens of survivors huddled in the darkness. Men and women. Children. The elderly. All that remains of Eldermoor’s free citizens. “The dome went up within days. Anyone who resisted was taken. Converted.” His voice breaks. “The Council is gone. Most of them. I’m all that’s left.”

“How many survivors?”

“In the crypts? Perhaps three hundred. Scattered through the city, hiding in cellars and attics? Maybe three hundred more. Out of a city of ten thousand.” He shakes his head. “The shadow creatures patrol constantly. The Hollow Knights enforce Varek’s will. And the gem… the gem screams now. Every night. The founders’ souls, crying out.”

You’ve heard that scream. In your dreams. In your visions.

“We’re going to end it,” you say. “We have the relics. We know how to break the Binding.”

Corvus’s eyes widen as you show him—the Quill, the Scales, the Seed. Three relics of the founders, reunited for the first time in three centuries.

“How…?”

“It’s a long story.” You put the relics away. “But we need help. We can’t assault the gem alone. We need everyone who can fight.”

Corvus is quiet for a moment. Then he nods.

“Come. There are people you should meet. People who’ve been waiting for someone to lead them.”