The wind around the island was unnatural—thick, slow, and cold.
As they stepped onto the floating landmass, Leon's boots crunched against broken marble. Cracked stone paths twisted between towering, half-destroyed structures. Everything was massive in scale—designed not for mortals, but for something far greater. Empty thrones lined the center, spaced evenly around a crater in the middle of the ruins.
Kael's voice broke the silence. "This whole floor… it's a fortress."
Roselia nodded. "Built around something they couldn't protect."
Aris knelt beside one of the statues. Its face was eroded, but a faint crown symbol remained etched along the chestplate. "Whoever this was… they didn't fall easily."
Leon walked to the edge of the central crater. Inside it, long-dormant energy swirled—a pool of elemental fragments flickering faintly, clashing and dissolving into one another like a storm of broken legacies.
He stared down into it.
