The soldiers who were returning to the surface offered a final salute before stepping onto the glowing pathway leading back.
Their footsteps faded slowly, echoing like distant whispers until silence settled behind them. Only those who chose to press onward remained.
Then with Reynold's lead, they began their way towards the next layer.
As they crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed at once. The quiet hum of the previous chamber vanished, giving way to a heavy, motionless stillness.
In front of them stretched a deep, endless darkness, so complete that it seed to swallow even the faintest trace of light.
The group slowed their pace. Their boots barely touched the ground, their weapons drawn halfway, eyes sharp and searching for the slightest tremor of movent in the darkness.
Then, a soft tone resonated. Lina's staff awakened, its core blooming with pale blue light.
The illumination flowed outward in interwoven rings, spreading like thin mist across the fractured floor.
With its gentle glow, the world around them gradually revealed itself, jagged stone pillars, suspended fragnts of ancient structures, pieces of architecture drifting weightlessly as though disconnected from the world.
"This is…" soone murmured in awe.
"The true form of the ruin," Lina replied quietly, her voice carrying a trace of recognition.
They had seen bits of this phenonon previously, small distortions, but here, the scale was overwhelming.
The space did not follow the rules of a other chamber. It was vast, hollow, almost unreal. Reality itself seed torn apart. Broken halls, fractured corridors, crumbling altars, and even the faint shape of a grand throne room flickered in and out of existence like distant mories struggling not to fade.
Ling Yan's eyes narrowed as she studied the void. "These distortions… they look like remnants of a battle."
The Elder nodded. "Yes. Likely, a clash of imnse power must have occurred here, sothing that tore this layer apart."
They moved slowly, careful not to disturb the emptiness around them. The deeper they went, the stranger the air beca, cold, dry, yet humming faintly with so ancient, lingering energy.
Then Reynold stopped.
His body stiffened, eyes fixed on the empty expanse to their right.
"Lord Reynold?" a commander asked cautiously.
He didn't answer imdiately. There was a faint silver shimr.
Lina stepped forward beside him and raised her staff. A pulse of light swept across the shadows, and within that soft radiance, sothing small and delicate was revealed.
A feather. Pure white, its edges faintly lined with gold, glowing softly like moonlight reflected on snow.
Lina's stuttered. "T-this aura…"
Reynold knelt, his hand hovering above the feather without touching it. For a mont, only a mont, his composed expression wavered.
"It's hers," he whispered. Silica. His younger sister had co through this place.
Lina's gaze followed the faint trail of energy leading deeper into the distorted space. "If she reached this point… then the path she took must continue through that gate."
Far off in the distance, barely visible among fragnts of broken reality, a gate shimred like a mirage.
Soon, they made their way toward it.
Upon reaching it, Lina extended her staff, letting her magic seek the other side. But the light scattered instantly, dissolving into tiny sparks.
"A barrier," she murmured, frowning. "I-it blocks spiritual sense entirely. Everyone, be cautious."
Reynold rested a hand on his sword and stepped forward first. Lina followed close behind, and the soldiers tightened their formation before crossing the threshold together.
In an instant, the world shifted.
The shattered void disappeared, replaced by a vast plain of smooth black stone stretching endlessly in every direction.
No sky hung above them, only a dark void, silent and airless. Yet, high above, two stars floated in defiance of this emptiness: one burning in warm gold, the other gleaming in pale blue. Their overlapping light cast a strange, shifting radiance across the land, beautiful in a way that felt almost unreal.
For a long mont, no one spoke.
Then their attention was drawn to the horizon. There, rising impossibly tall, stood a monolith of polished obsidian. Its surface reflected the twin starlight, glimring like captured fragnts of sun and moon.
Ling Yan's voice trembled as she spoke. "That… must be the ruin's core."
The elder beside her squinted against the distant glow.
"It matches the old records… it must be it. The source of the corruption," he said gravely.
A tense hope flickered among the soldiers. Once that thing was destroyed, perhaps this nightmare would finally end.
But that hope was shattered by a sudden shout.
"Those traitors!"
Everyone followed the gaze of the person and turned toward the distant monolith.
There, gathered in dense ranks, were the soldiers of Durn. They were not preparing for battle, nor standing guard. Instead, they knelt upon the black stone, heads bowed low toward the towering structure as if in reverence. Their weapons lay discarded beside them. Their posture was not defensive, it was worship.
Just then, a strange, hazy pressure pressed against two standing armies.
Their thoughts seed to grow sluggish. Their attention wandered, drawn toward the gleaming surface.
Confusion clouded their vision. Their grips loosened. Their breaths slowed.
Then a warm, gentle light blood among them, soft rose-colored radiance wrapping around their hearts like a protective embrace.
Princess Ling Yan stood at the center of the glow, her expression calm yet resolute. The haze clouding their minds broke apart at once, like mist under morning sunlight.
Only then did they recognize what had happened. Just now, they were being influenced by sothing unseen. Most likely whatever was influencing those Durn soldiers.
"B-be careful… Don't stare at it for too long." Lina's voice echoed through their minds,
The soldiers' faces tightened. Unlike their commanders, they did not have the sa ntal discipline. If their focus slipped even for a mont, they could end up just like the Durn soldiers kneeling before the monolith. The realization sent a cold shiver through them.
Even from this distance, the monolith's influence had already begun to seep into their thoughts.
Had Ling Yan not acted at that exact mont, they too would have fallen into silent devotion, just like the Durn army kneeling before the monolith.
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