The entrance was buried beneath roots and silence.
Mira knelt before the stone slab, brushing away dirt and moss until the etched symbols reappeared—half-faded Abyssal script, scrawled in a language that no surface-born scholar dared translate. But Auron didn't need translation. The mask understood.
He placed his hand on the glyph in the center.
It pulsed once.
Then sank inward with a low click.
A gust of stale air rushed out as the ground trembled. The slab shifted, folding open into steps that spiraled downward, swallowed by pitch darkness.
Jace winced at the smell. "It's like something's been rotting for a century."
"Because it has," Mira replied.
Auron didn't wait.
He descended without hesitation.
The tunnel was narrow, the walls slick with condensation and rot. Every few steps, bones crunched beneath their feet—some animal, others not. The deeper they went, the more the stone changed. Smooth became jagged. Carved symbols gave way to markings that bled shadow.
Then came the silence.
Not absence of sound.
A presence of quiet.
Too perfect.
Too still.
The system flickered with every breath.
[You Are Entering: Crownroot Sanctum]
[Warning: High Residual Abyssal Pressure]
[Fragment Echo Detected – Close Proximity]
[Stabilizing Internal Core…]
They reached a rusted iron door sealed by seven locks.
Mira turned to Auron. "We're right beneath the citadel now. Beyond this is the royal heart."
Auron nodded. "And the lie."
He placed his palm on the center lock.
The metal hissed and peeled open like it recognized its maker.
Each lock snapped undone.
The door opened.
Inside lay a chamber of thrones.
Not one.
Not just the one above.
But twelve.
Each carved from a different material—bone, obsidian, crystal, thornwood—and each crumbled or broken, overgrown by roots of pale silver trees that pulsed with unnatural light.
Jace swallowed. "What is this place?"
"The history they erased," Auron said. "The true lineage of the Hollow Kings."
Mira stepped forward. "Each throne… a different reign?"
Auron nodded. "And each one ended the same. Betrayal. Silence. A new name on a false crown."
Then he saw it.
At the center of the circle of thrones: a pedestal of jagged stone, and upon it—
The final shard.
It was no longer a fragment.
It had formed a mask of its own—one made of gold-veined black crystal, carved with perfect symmetry. It pulsed slowly, like it breathed.
Auron stepped closer.
The system went silent.
Then—
[Final Mask Fragment Detected]
[Core Match: 100% – You are the True Bearer]
[WARNING: Mask Contains Imprinted Will – Conflict Inevitable]
[Begin Integration? Y/N]
He reached for it.
Mira drew in a breath. "Are you sure—?"
"Yes."
The moment his fingers touched the mask—
The chamber vanished.
He stood again in a white void.
But this time, he was not alone.
Across from him stood a figure identical to himself.
Same face.
Same scars.
Same mask.
But the eyes...
Empty.
Lifeless.
Cold.
"You're the memory," Auron said.
"I am the crown without a name," the reflection replied.
"You held the power before it was taken."
"I am the power."
The reflection raised its hand.
And the void shattered into a battlefield.
They stood atop the ruins of the old throne city — storm swirling overhead, towers aflame, armies frozen in ash around them.
The memory attacked.
Steel clashed against shadow.
Every move the reflection made, Auron had seen before—because it was his.
But he was no longer the same.
He moved faster.
Struck deeper.
Every time he stumbled, he rose again, not by strength—but will.
At last, he disarmed the reflection.
Held the blade to its throat.
"What are you?" he demanded.
The reflection stared with hollow fury.
"I am what you must become."
Auron leaned closer.
"No," he said. "I'm what comes next."
He drove the blade in.
The memory shattered into light.
Auron collapsed back into his body, gasping.
The shard had vanished.
The mask on his face pulsed once—
And changed.
Its color deepened into black-gold. The eye on its brow opened. Runes slithered across its surface, forming a crown-like ridge.
The chamber shook.
The thrones crumbled.
The tree roots burned.
The system spoke again.
[Final Mask Form Acquired: Crown of the Hollow King]
[New Title: Sovereign of the Abyss]
[Skill Gained: Shadow Throne – Manifest a domain where all Abyss-based skills are enhanced and enemies weakened]
[Corruption Stabilized – 52%]
Mira caught him before he fell.
Jace ran forward. "What happened?!"
Auron looked up, voice calm.
"The false king's time is over."
He turned toward the hidden stairway leading up into the palace above.
"The true heir has returned."
And this time...
He was done waiting.