Page 58

“Look there,” Rhia said, pointing ahead where the path curved around a massive boulder.

Beyond it, the trees parted to reveal our first glimpse of Ivros Hollow.

The ancient temple was built into the mountainside, its architecture unlike anything I’d seen in Cindersea.

Towering spires of dark stone reached skyward, yet half the structure appeared to have been swallowed by the earth itself, as if the mountain had tried to reclaim it.

Doorways stood twice the height of a normal man, their edges adorned with spiraling patterns that seemed to move when viewed from the corner of one’s eye.

“By the gods,” Mira breathed, her fingers clutching her wand tighter. “The magical residue here is... overwhelming.”

I felt it too. There was a heaviness in the air that made my skin prickle and my head throb. The drumming sound was clearly emanating from within the ruins, steady and unwavering, like a massive heart beating beneath the earth itself.

“The temple’s alive,” I murmured, clutching my staff tighter.

Sky’s ears flattened against his head. “Not alive. Dreaming.”

We stood transfixed, watching as faint wisps of purplish mist curled around the base of the temple, dissipating into the air only to reform moments later. The entrance gaped like a wound in the mountainside, dark and forbidding.

“This is so much bigger than I imagined,” Kai said, his voice barely audible over the rhythmic thrum. “The corruption is spreading…” He looked back at us. “Do you think it’s coming from the god itself or something else?”

“I’m not sure,” Mira replied, her eyes clenched shut. “But the magic here… I don’t recognize it. And it feels… twisted somehow. I can’t tell if the god is doing it or if it’s the magic that keeps it asleep.”

“This looks bad…” Rhia muttered, but she straightened her shoulders and stepped forward. “But I don’t want Boromia getting ahold of this magic… whatever it is. Let’s get this over with before it’s too late.”

“We stick together,” Kai ordered as we approached the entrance. “No wandering off alone, no matter what we see or hear.”

The threshold of Ivros Hollow seemed to resist our passage, the air becoming thick and difficult to push through. I felt a pressure in my ears, like descending rapidly from a great height. As we crossed into the temple proper, the drumming intensified, reverberating through my chest.

Inside, the temple defied conventional architecture.

Hallways spiraled at impossible angles, leading both up and down simultaneously.

Doorways opened onto walls, while what appeared to be solid stone sometimes rippled like water when approached.

Murals adorned every surface, depicting scenes that shifted and changed when touched.

“Don’t touch anything,” Mira warned, studying the walls with wide eyes. “The magic here is... unstable. It feels like it might shatter at any moment.”

“Which way?” Kuro asked, his sword already drawn despite the lack of visible threats.

Kai consulted the rough map we’d pieced together from the captain’s papers. “The ritual chamber should be at the lowest point. We need to find a way down.”

We moved cautiously through the twisting corridors, the drumming growing louder with each step.

The temple seemed to watch us, awareness prickling at the edges of my consciousness.

Occasionally, whispers drifted past my ears, words I’d used before that had lost all meaning the moment I thought of them.

It was like my memories from my previous life were coming back to haunt me, though they were still meaningless.

I saw flashes in my mind of things I’d lived through, but they lacked any context.

It was terrifying and maddening all at the same time.

“Oliver,” Sky said quietly, falling back to walk beside me. “Your eyes...”

“What about them?”

“They’re... glowing. Just slightly.”

I blinked, suddenly aware of a strange sensation behind my eyes, like a gentle pressure. “The mark of the Twilight champion,” I whispered, remembering how they’d gone white when I put the guardian to rest. “It must be responding to whatever’s here.”

Sky nodded grimly. “Be careful. If Boromia sees that...”

He didn’t need to finish the thought. If the captain saw any sign that I was more than just a simple cleric, it would only cause more problems. As far as we knew, nobody outside of the party had any idea I’d been chosen.

If Boromia found out, I had no doubt he’d find a way to exploit it and use it against us and the rest of Cindersea.

A brief search led us to a large spiraling staircase. Without any preamble, we descended deeper into the temple, following the stairs that seemed to defy gravity.

The staircase twisted impossibly, each step seeming to shift beneath our feet.

I gripped the wall for balance, feeling the stone pulse warm and alive under my palm.

As we descended, the air grew thicker, heavier with that strange purple mist we’d seen outside.

It clung to us like cobwebs, dissipating when touched only to reform moments later.

“This place is wrong,” Kuro muttered, slashing at the mist with his sword. The vapor parted momentarily before flowing back together. “Everything about it feels... sick.”

“It wasn’t always like this,” Mira observed, her voice hushed with something like reverence. “Look at the craftsmanship. These runes here, they’re preservation spells. Protection spells. Whoever built this place wanted to safeguard something precious.”

“Or contain something dangerous,” Sky countered, his ears constantly swiveling toward sounds only he could detect.

The drumming heartbeat grew louder as we spiraled downward, the tempo unchanging but the volume becoming almost painful. My head throbbed in rhythm with it, and I noticed the others wincing too. Only Kai seemed relatively unaffected, his eyes focused ahead with steady determination.

“There,” he said suddenly, pointing to where the staircase ended at a vast chamber.

We emerged onto a stone platform overlooking a space so large it seemed impossible for it to fit within the mountain.

The ceiling arched high above, supported by columns carved to resemble twisted humanoid figures, their faces frozen in expressions of calm reverence or death, it was impossible to tell which.

The floor below us was a massive mosaic depicting a celestial scene, stars and planets arranged in unfamiliar patterns around a central green planet with a large ruddy moon close by.

I recognized it immediately as Cindersea.

And in the center of it all stood a sealed vault.

“That’s it,” Mira whispered, pointing with her wand. “The ritual chamber.”

We descended another set of stairs to the chamber floor.

Up close, the mosaic was even more incredible.

The stars seemed to twinkle despite being made of stone, and the image of Cindersea seemed to shift and turn slowly.

as if the mosaic was showing the planet’s movements in real time.

I swore I could even see the tower we’d all woken up on clinging to the far end of the red moon.

The vault itself was a massive construction of metal and stone, covered in glyphs unlike any I’d seen before, not even in the ancient dungeon Sky and I had barely escaped.

Everything here was strange and far older than anything I was taught at the cleric’s guild.

This magic was completely unknown to me.

“Can you read any of this?” I asked Mira, gesturing to the symbols.

She shook her head, blue hair swaying. “These aren’t in any magical language I’ve studied. They’re... older. Whatever it is, the mage guild doesn’t have a record of it. Or doesn’t teach it anyway.”

“Look,” Rhia said, pointing to five circular platforms arranged in a perfect pentagon around the vault. “The ritual positions.”

Each platform was carved with a different elemental symbol, a flame, a droplet, a leaf, a swirling wind, and what appeared to be a starburst. They corresponded perfectly to what we’d deduced. Fire, water, earth, air, and spirit.

“And there,” Sky added, indicating a raised dais directly before the vault. “That must be the focal point. The sixth position.”

I approached the dais cautiously, my staff held before me. The moment my foot touched the raised platform, a jolt of energy surged through me. Images flashed behind my eyes, stars dying, worlds being born, a presence vast and ancient stirring from slumber. I stumbled backward, gasping.

“Oliver!” Sky was at my side instantly, steadying me with a firm grip on my arm. “What happened?”

“I saw... something,” I managed, my voice shaking. “When I touched the dais. Like memories, but not mine.”

Kai frowned, stepping closer to examine the dais without touching it. “The focal point is sensitive to magical energy. It must have reacted to you specifically.”

“Because he’s a cleric?” Rhia asked, keeping her distance from all the platforms.

“Or because of the Twilight’s mark,” Sky murmured, low enough that only I could hear.

The drumming heartbeat seemed to quicken slightly, the rhythm changing for the first time since we’d entered the ruins. The vault itself appeared to respond, the strange glyphs glowing faintly with a purple-tinged light.

“It knows we’re here,” Mira whispered, clutching her wand tightly. “The magic is... reacting.”

“Everyone, step back from the vault,” Kai ordered, his voice cutting through the tension. “Give me a moment to think.”

We retreated several paces, watching as the glyphs’ glow faded to a dull pulse that matched the slowing heartbeat. The air felt charged, like the moment before lightning strikes.

“This place is too reactive,” Kai said, keeping his voice low. “If we destroy something, we might set off a chain reaction that will bring this whole place down on top of us.”

“I think you’re right,” Mira nodded. “Destroying the ritual was a good idea until we got here.” She crouched down, dragging her wand over the stone floor. “There’s too much protection magic here, and it’s already weak. If we destroy even a single piece of it… the god will awaken.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling the fear clench around my stomach.

“No…” she muttered. “But my instincts are screaming at me not to disrupt the magic.”

“What do we do then?” Sky asked, his voice gruff but full of fear. “How do we stop Boromia?”

“Wait,” Kai said suddenly, his eyes fixed on the vault. “Mira, you said these were preservation spells, right? Meant to protect something precious?”

She nodded hesitantly. “That was my first impression, yes.”

“What if...” Kai approached the vault cautiously, careful not to touch it. “What if whatever’s inside isn’t what Boromia thinks it is? What if it’s not a god at all, but something else?”

I followed his gaze, studying the intricate glyphs more carefully. Now that he mentioned it, the symbols didn’t seem threatening or binding. They had a different quality, almost... reverent.

“Like what?” Rhia asked, crossing her arms.

“I don’t know,” Kai admitted. “But I think we need to find out before we decide what to do.”

Sky’s ears twitched forward. “And how exactly do we do that without waking it up?”

Kai turned back to us, his expression serious. “When Oliver got close, it reacted to his magic. But what if a non-magical person were to approach?”

“That… might work?” I said hesitantly. “But what if it hurts them? Or… kills them?”

“Well,” Kai sighed. “We’re running out of time and there’s only one way to find out.”

Without so much as a backward glance, he stepped forward, slapping his palm to the side of the stone vault.

Gasps echoed through the chamber, the sudden recklessness of our leader catching us all off guard.

I expected him to cry out, for him to be thrown backward by the sudden burst of magic.

But that didn’t happen. In fact, nothing happened at all.

“Nothing,” Kai said, glancing back. “It just feels warm. I didn’t get a vision.”

But just as he was about to pull his hand away, the stone began to creak and grind. Seams appeared along the vault’s surface, glyphs illuminating in sequence like a complex combination lock being solved. I stepped back, clutching my staff as the ancient mechanism responded to Kai’s touch.

“Get away from it!” Sky shouted, lunging forward to pull Kai back.

But Kai stood transfixed, his hand seemingly fused to the stone. “I can’t... move,” he whispered, eyes wide with panic. “Something’s holding me here.”

The grinding intensified as the vault began to split open, revealing a narrow seam that widened with each passing moment. Purple mist poured from the opening, thicker than before, swirling around Kai’s ankles and climbing up his body like hungry tendrils.

“Help him!” Rhia shouted, rushing forward only to be thrown back by an invisible barrier that had formed around the vault.

“I can’t get through!” she growled, pounding against the unseen wall with her fists.

The heartbeat sound accelerated, no longer steady but frantic and irregular. The entire chamber trembled, dust and small stones raining from the ceiling. Mira raised her wand, blue hair whipping around her face as if caught in a phantom wind.

“The magic is destabilizing!” she cried, arcane symbols flickering around her fingertips. “Whatever’s happening, it’s breaking down the preservation spells!”

Inside the barrier, Kai’s face contorted with effort as he tried to pull away from the vault. “Oliver,” he gasped, looking back at me with desperate eyes. “It’s talking to me. It’s showing me things. It’s not... it’s not what we thought.”

The vault cracked open further, revealing not a monstrous entity but a fist-sized sphere of obsidian glass, cracked and humming with energy. It floated slightly above a stone pedestal, rotating slowly as if suspended in invisible fluid.

It wasn’t a god at all.