The forest thickened as they followed. The air grew warmer, heavier, almost like walking into the breath of something vast and sleeping. The glowing veins in the trees pulsed in rhythm with the remnant's steps, as though the forest itself acknowledged its presence.
The being never spoke. It never turned its faceless head to them except when it paused at a fork, waiting until they drew close before moving again. Each movement was graceful, almost ritualistic.
Jonas muttered under his breath, "We're following a crystal ghost through a haunted jungle. Somebody remind me why this is sane."
Mara answered without looking at him. "Because the alternative is wandering until the soil eats us alive."
Still, her grip never left her rifle.
Liora's eyes, however, were fixed on the remnant. Her voice was distant, reverent even. "It's not leading us into death. It's bound. Guiding us because it must."
Eris studied the figure's glow, the way the light shifted as it moved. "Bound to what?"
Before Liora could answer, the forest parted. The trees bent away, their warped branches forming a kind of arch. The whispers dimmed until there was only silence, thick and heavy.
And there it was.
A hollow basin, wide and deep, sat at the forest's heart. At its center rose a crystalline spire half-buried in the earth, its surface cracked but glowing with a light that pulsed like a beating heart. The veins from the trees all converged here, as though this spire fed the entire forest.
Jonas sucked in a sharp breath. "The… core."
The remnant stopped at the basin's edge. It turned to face them for the first time, light flaring faintly in its faceless head. Then, without sound, it sank to one knee—like a soldier before a commander.
Mara raised her rifle instinctively. "What the hell—"
But Eris raised a hand to stop her. His own breath was caught in his chest, his gaze locked on the glowing spire. The crystal wasn't just a fragment of Mars. It was Mars—or at least, the heart keeping this strange world alive.
And somehow, it was waiting for them.