The hidden chamber was nothing like the rest of the Tower of Truth. The moment Max and Lucien stepped through the portal, the air thickened as though they had entered a place cut away from the world. It felt ancient, heavy and suffocating, as if time itself avoided disturbing whatever lay within.
At the very center of the chamber floated a single, pulsing object.
A golden heart.
It expanded and contracted with a steady rhythm, each beat sending faint ripples of light across the chamber. The glow was not warm but cold, like sunlight filtered through ice. It pulsed with an authority that did not belong to any mortal body. This was not flesh. It was a soul-organ, forged from condensed essence that only a crowned being could possess.
Impaled straight through the golden heart was a sword.
