The air shifted the moment they crossed the seal.
It wasn't colder. Not exactly. Just… *thinner*, like something was breathing down here and didn't want to share. The tunnel sloped downward in a slow spiral, deeper than any part of the mine Auron had ever explored. The stone underfoot was wet, pulsing with veins of black crystal that shimmered faintly beneath their boots.
Mira held her light high, but even the crystal's glow seemed to dim with every step.
"This place is wrong," she muttered.
Auron said nothing. His hand rested near the hilt of his blade. The mask hugged his face, silent but alert. Inside, he could feel the system reacting to something—like a signal, faint but steady, echoing from below.
\[Field Effect Detected: Abyssal Saturation – 72%]
\[Environmental Threat Level: HIGH]
\[Artifact Response: Stabilizing]
"This whole tunnel feels like a throat," Mira said after a while, her voice low. "Like it's waiting to swallow us."
"It already did," Auron replied. "We're just walking toward the stomach."
They passed through a rusted archway marked in old Abyssal runes. The symbols glowed briefly as Auron crossed beneath them, responding to the mask's energy.
Mira paused.
"I've seen this before," she said. "On a scroll recovered from a ruin near the western sea. The phrase translates to... 'Return Unmade.'"
"Fitting," Auron said. "That's what they want."
"Who?"
"The Abyss. The ones who listen from beneath."
Mira gave him a sharp look. "You're speaking like it's alive."
"It is."
---
They reached the bottom after nearly an hour.
The path opened into a vast underground cavern. The ceiling stretched so high they couldn't see it. Giant pillars of cracked obsidian supported the roof, etched with faces — screaming, laughing, silent. Pools of black water dotted the floor, still and mirror-like.
At the center stood a monolith.
Tall.
Twisting.
Covered in hundreds of half-formed masks — all fused together like melted bone and glass.
And beneath it, carved into the rock itself, a massive circle of runes.
It pulsed with faint red light.
Auron stepped toward it. The system flared.
\[Primary Source Located: Root Chamber]
\[Resonance Detected: Whispering Mask – Origin Match: 91%]
\[Fragmented Will Present – Dormant]
\[Touch to Awaken]
Mira grabbed his arm.
"We don't know what happens if you activate it."
Auron looked at her.
"We already know what happens if I don't."
He stepped into the circle.
Nothing exploded.
No screams.
Only silence.
Then—
The masks on the monolith began to shift.
One by one, they turned toward him.
And whispered.
Mira stepped back, sword drawn.
Auron stood still.
The whispers grew louder.
Thousands of voices, overlapping, twisting, crawling through his mind like vines.
He dropped to one knee, clutching his head.
The system glitched.
\[Connection Overload – Stabilizing…]
\[Corruption Surge: 49%]
\[Warning: Mental Threshold Approaching]
The central mask on the monolith cracked open.
Behind it, an eye stared.
Not human.
Not beast.
An *Abyssal Core*, pure and alive.
It pulsed once, and Auron felt it—deep in his spine.
Pain.
Memory.
Something *older* than the pit. Older than kingdoms.
A voice echoed in the chamber.
Not in air. In bone.
**"We remember you, Hollow King."**
Auron gasped.
He saw flashes.
A great palace beneath the sea of stars.
A throne carved from shadow.
A hand reaching down toward a boy — a crown of ash placed on his brow.
Then flames.
Screaming.
Collapse.
He fell to the ground, shaking.
Mira rushed to him, grabbing his shoulder. "What happened?"
He looked up slowly, eyes glowing pale silver behind the mask.
"I've been here before."
"That's not possible—"
"I don't mean *me* now."
He stood.
"I mean the one I used to be."
---
The monolith cracked.
A tendril of black liquid slithered from its base, forming a shape — tall and thin, robed in tattered gray.
Its face was empty.
Only a shifting surface of countless mouths.
It spoke without moving.
**"You return. But not whole. Not yet."**
Mira raised her blade.
Auron didn't.
"You're the source," he said. "The seed of the mask."
"I am memory. I am the forgotten. I am the scream between kings."
"What do you want from me?"
"To finish what was broken."
The creature stepped forward.
"And to remind you of the war you left behind."
---
The system flared again.
\[Core Awakening Event Triggered – Evolution Path Unlocked]
\[Warning: Choice Ahead Will Shape Final Form]
\[Do You Accept the Gift of the Root?]
Mira's voice shook. "Don't. You don't know what it'll turn you into."
Auron stared at the creature.
At the cracked monolith.
At the circle of red runes that pulsed beneath his feet.
Then he answered.
"Yes."
The light exploded.
And the Abyss opened wider.