World Reborn

The team conducts a pre-dawn assault on the first Ninth Circle ritual site, a fortified farmstead in rural Appalachia. Haatim coordinates from the ridgeline using his Gift while Niccolo dismantles the spiritual wards through prayer, Petrillo and Arthur breach the perimeter, and Emma runs overwatch.

Weeks after Dominick's death, Haatim and Arthur cross-reference journals and archives in a safe house research room. A pattern emerges: the same ancient entity appears across multiple religious traditions under different names, and the Ninth Gate is pre-Christian.

Abigail holds the corruption tether to Mal'akheth at the central ritual site. The entity's spiritual weight is staggering. She pulls it closer to the physical plane inch by inch, the focal stones creating friction that ratchets her progress.