Kael's POV
The subterranean tunnel was narrow, cold, and heavy with an ancient, crushing stillness.
With every step deeper into the mountain's belly, the ambient spiritual energy roared louder in my ears like a surging tide. The rock walls flickered with faint, naturally occurring veins of luminescent quartz, casting ethereal blue shadows over Arith and me as we moved swiftly through the gloom.
My heart hammered against my ribs—not merely from anticipation, but from the agonizing, violent thrashing of the curse.
It knew.
The dark magic coiled inside my chest was screaming, sinking its invisible, venomous claws into my lungs in a desperate attempt to drag me down before I could reach the chamber.
"Kael," Arith breathed, her silver mana swirling around her hands like protective mist as she matched my rapid pace. "The natural spiritual energy here is so dense it's warping the physical space. The vault is just past this archway."
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
My golden mana was leaking through my skin in bright, erratic sparks, answering the frantic, desperate call from beyond the stone threshold.
We burst through the narrow passageway into a vast, cavernous vault.
It was breathtaking. Towering stalactites hung like frozen spears from a ceiling lost in darkness, but the entire cavern was illuminated by a blinding, majestic radiance radiating from the center of the room.
Floating above a ancient, cracked stone pedestal was a sphere of pure, incandescent golden light—the size of a hearth fire, pulsing in perfect, harmonious rhythm.
My Great Core.
My soul's missing half.
The moment my eyes locked onto it, a gasp tore from my throat. The resonance was instant and overwhelming. Memories I had buried for three centuries flooded my mind in a blinding flash—the scent of golden banners in the wind, the roar of my people, the warmth of a realm that had once flourished under my protection.
"It's pristine," Arith whispered, her voice filled with quiet awe as she stepped back to give me space. "It's been completely untouched by the outside world."
"I... I can feel it," I rasped, taking a heavy, staggering step forward. I reached my trembling right hand out toward the floating orb of light. "Arith... it's calling—"
BOOM.
A violent shockwave rattled the entire cavern.
Dust and shattered rock rained down from the ceiling as a deep, structural tremor shook the mountain to its very roots. The brilliant golden light of the core flickered violently, its steady pulse breaking into a jagged, panicked rhythm.
Arith whipped around, her silver eyes flaring with instant, deadly focus. "What was that?!"
Before I could answer, a sickening, suffocating chill swept through the underground chamber, instantly snuffing out the warm, natural spiritual energy of the mountain. The heavy, metallic stench of ozone and dark magic flooded the narrow tunnels.
He was here.
Through the narrow entrance tunnel, the faint sound of thunder echoed from the outside world—not the natural rumble of a storm, but a dark, booming cadence that vibrated through the stone floor beneath my boots.
"Kael," Arith gasped, rushing to the edge of the passageway and peering back toward the mouth of the cave. Her face drained of all color. "Look above the valley."
I forced my eyes away from my core, taking two sharp strides to stand beside her.
Far down the subterranean tunnel, framed by the distant fissure of the cave entrance, the sky above the mountain peak had turned an unnatural, pitch-black ink. The gray clouds from earlier had been violently torn apart, replaced by a swirling, unnatural vortex of darkness that stretched across the horizon.
Red lightning crackled through the pitch-black clouds, illuminating the ridge toward the clearing where Aiden was parked. It could only be one thing.
Eryn.
A cold, paralyzing terror seized my blood—not for myself, nor for the curse burning in my chest.
Aiden.
Aiden was sitting in the car right in the path of that descending nightmare.
"He's destroying the valley's masking ward from the outside," Arith hissed, her silver light flaring dangerously around her arms. "He's using his army's combined dark magic to smother the natural spiritual energy!"
"No..." I breathed, my heart slamming violently against my ribs. "Aiden... he's right in the clearing..."
Outside, a deafening horn echoed through the mountains, sounding the charge of Eryn's dark vanguard as they swarmed down toward the base of the peak.