The first guardian appeared at the entrance to the old throne room.
It was a knight or had been, once. Its armor was rusted, its flesh long since rotted away, but something moved inside the helmet. Something that wept. Tears of black acid dripped from the visor, sizzling when they hit the stone floor.
"The Weeping Knights," Ren said. "Soldiers who died in the Shattering. Amaranth has resurrected them not as souls, but as echoes. They don't remember who they were. Only that they failed. Only that they should have protected something."
"Protected what?" Lee asked.
"The city. The Sleeper. Themselves." Ren's voice was sad. "They're not evil. They're just... broken."
The Weeping Knight raised its sword a massive blade of black iron and charged.
Lee met it with the Dawnblade. The two swords clashed, light against shadow, hope against despair. The Knight was strong stronger than any normal warrior but it was also slow. Predictable. Lee ducked under its swing and drove his blade through its chest.
The Knight didn't scream. It wept. The black tears flowed faster, and the thing inside the helmet began to whisper.
"Forgive us... forgive us... we couldn't save them... we couldn't save anyone..."
Lee felt his heart clench. "You're forgiven," he said. "Rest now."
The Knight crumbled into dust.
But more were coming. A dozen. A hundred. The plaza filled with Weeping Knights, their black tears pooling on the ground, their whispers rising into a cacophony of despair.
"There are too many!" Taro shouted.
"Then we fight through them!" Kira unleashed a wave of fire that turned a dozen Knights to ash but more took their place.
Lee raised the Dawnblade and let the light explode from his chest. The golden radiance washed over the plaza, and the Knights froze. Their weeping stopped. Their whispers faded.
"The Light Bringer," they murmured. "The one who frees. The one who forgives."
"Let us pass," Lee said. "We mean no harm to you. We only want to stop the Sleeper."
The Knights parted not all of them, but enough to create a path.
"Go," one of them whispered. "Before we change our minds."
Lee didn't wait. He ran, his team close behind, through the corridor of weeping ghosts and into the heart of the Sunken City.