At the end of the corridor stood a domed stone hall.

  Thick ice coated its walls, fractured by countless ancient cracks. Through those fissures, aurora light poured down in slow cascades, bathing the chamber in cold radiance and illuminating the stone monolith at its center with solemn brilliance.

  The monolith towered over them—nearly three times their height. Its surface was engraved with a sigil that resembled a blooming flame: intricate, layered, impossibly old. The lines twisted and overlapped as if still burning beneath the ice, alive with restrained power.

  Erika’s jade pendant suddenly flared with heat.

  Green light surged through it, pulsing in rhythm, as though her heart itself had begun to echo the monolith’s presence. She froze, instinctively pressing her hand against the pendant.

  Lucas, meanwhile, went completely still.

  His gaze locked onto the stone as if seized. His breathing grew shallow, fingers trembling almost imperceptibly at his side.

  “I’ve finally…” His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

  “…found it.”

  Jabari’s expression darkened. “You recognize it?”

  Lucas stepped forward and placed his hand against the frozen sigil. His palm shook as he spoke.

  “This is my family’s crest,” he said.

  “The final mark of the Runic Guardians.”

  The air froze solid.

  Erika’s eyes widened, disbelief cutting through her breath. “You… you knew all along?”

  Lucas closed his eyes. When he spoke again, it sounded as though the truth had been torn out of him by force.

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  “For centuries, my family bore the duty of fighting the Shadow. We were the last bloodline of the Runic Guardians.”

  His jaw tightened.

  “But during the final confrontation, we were betrayed. Almost all of us were wiped out.”

  He opened his eyes.

  “I am one of the survivors.”

  Erika’s chest tightened painfully. Fragments of her grandmother’s dying words flashed through her mind—unfinished warnings, half-spoken fears. Her voice trembled with anger.

  “Then why hide it from us?”

  “Why not tell us sooner?”

  “Because if I did, you wouldn’t have believed me,” Lucas replied coldly.

  “And because everyone who knew the full truth… is dead.”

  At that moment, the monolith began to shake.

  Deep-blue runes ignited across its surface, flowing like rivers of light and spreading outward along the walls of the chamber. A low, resonant hum filled the air, like the murmur of ancient souls whispering from beneath the ice.

  New words emerged upon the stone:

  “The bloodline is unbroken.

  The imprisoned one still lives.”

  The sound that followed thundered against their eardrums.

  Lucas staggered.

  He reached out toward the monolith. The instant his fingers touched it, a surge of crimson energy lashed back violently, tearing through his skin. Blood splattered onto the ice below.

  “Lucas!” Erika rushed forward—

  “Don’t touch it!” he roared, shoving her back.

  Blood streamed through his fingers, dripping steadily onto the frozen floor. He didn’t seem to feel it.

  His eyes were locked on the inscription, pupils contracted to pinpoints. His voice shook, low and raw.

  “She… she’s alive.”

  “Who?” Erika gasped.

  Lucas swallowed hard. At last, he forced the name out.

  “Sophia.

  My sister.”

  The monolith’s light exploded outward, flooding the relic in blinding brilliance.

  Auroral blue and violent crimson intertwined in the air, coalescing into wavering phantoms. From somewhere impossibly distant, a faint yet unmistakable female voice drifted through the chamber—

  “…Brother…”

  The three of them froze.

  That single word pierced straight through the soul, heavy with grief, fear, and longing beyond measure.

  Erika turned sharply toward Lucas. His face had gone deathly pale, his eyes filled with something she had never seen in him before—panic, obsession, and a fragile, terrifying hope.

  Jabari tightened his grip on his blade. Blue flame lashed violently in the freezing wind as he muttered under his breath:

  “Damn it… whatever we’ve stepped into… it’s darker than we ever imagined.”

  The relic trembled, as if on the verge of collapse.

  Yet the monolith’s light only burned brighter, searing that single truth into their hearts—

  a truth that could no longer be denied.

  Waiting.