The runes didn't just glow they shifted.
Lines bent. Edges softened. Symbols that once looked foreign now resembled maps. Paths. Threads of movement layered over one another like veins in stone.
Elira didn't flinch, but her voice was tighter than usual. "This wasn't meant to open by hand. It's reading something in the room."
"Reading what?" Ryall asked, arms still flexed with residual aura.
Kael's eyes lingered on the scythe in his grip. The blade had gone still, but the weight of the air had changed again. It was heavier, denser, as though the room itself was holding breath.
"I think it's reacting to us," Kael said.
Drev stepped forward slowly. "Not all of us. Just you."
Kael said nothing.
Elira moved closer to the arch. "There's a channel carved into the center. A groove. Could be a lock or a filter. Might need blood. Or..."
She didn't finish. The symbols realigned into a single vertical line, then split apart with a low hum. Stone moved not by gears, not by force, but by memory. The arch peeled open with no dust, no resistance.
On the other side: a hallway of metal and blackened glass, far smoother than anything in the ruin so far.
"This doesn't match anything aboveground," Tessan muttered. "Craftsmanship's different. Cleaner. Older, maybe."
They entered in silence, weapons drawn. The hallway curved downward, soft blue light lining its edges. It was cold, but not dead. Faint humming accompanied each step.
Kael walked near the middle again. His steps slowed.
The shadows weren't clinging they were listening.
They came to a chamber unlike the rest.
Wide. Circular. The floor was shaped like a shallow bowl, and at its center floated a mass of fractured black crystal suspended in mid-air, slowly spinning. It glowed with threads of silver that moved like nervous veins. Around the edges of the room were more of the eyeless statues but these didn't move. They were melted at the base. Broken long ago.
"What is that?" Ryall asked.
Elira stepped forward. "I don't know. But it's leaking pressure."
Kael's shadow moved without permission.
It extended outward stretched thin reached toward the crystal.
And the crystal pulsed in response.
Kael froze. "I didn't do that."
"No," Elira said carefully. "But it knows you."
Before anyone could speak again, the walls of the chamber flared with sudden heat. Lights surged overhead, and a circle of glyphs lit up beneath their feet. Not a trap an interface. A trigger.
Drev backed toward the door. "We're not alone anymore."
The floor shimmered.
From beneath it, silhouettes formed.
Not statues. Not guardians.
Echoes.
Figures of light and shadow, flickering like unstable memories. Not solid, not quite present but dangerous. Their eyes burned with intent.
Kael gritted his teeth. The scythe trembled, but he gripped it tighter.
No more hesitation.
As the echoes charged, Kael moved to meet them.
This time, he didn't swing wildly.
He guided the scythe.
The shadows responded not with violence but rhythm. Like they remembered how to flow. The blade slid through the first echo, unraveling it cleanly. Kael turned, bent low, swept again. Another fell.
Not power.
Practice.
Behind him, Ryall shouted and leapt into the fray, blades flashing. Drev struck from behind. Tessan held the line. Elira supported with quick, calculated blasts, trying not to interfere with the glyphs underfoot.
Kael moved with purpose now.
He wasn't clean.
But he wasn't afraid.
When the last echo fell, the crystal at the center dimmed then pulsed one last time.
A low chime sounded.
And across the room, a panel slid open.
A passage downward.
Tessan looked around. "How deep does this go?"
Elira shook her head. "No idea. But that crystal... it wasn't power. It was memory storage. A locked system responding to Kael's presence."
Drev muttered, "That was a test."
Kael turned to the open passage. "Then let's see what it was guarding."
They stepped through.
And behind them, the chamber sealed shut.