[Cass]
The hollow deepened as they stepped forward. The ground wasn't solid—just layers of hardened glass flexing under their boots. Each step sent ripples of light moving through the surface, slow as breath. Cass crouched, pressed his palm flat, and felt it respond. The rhythm matched his pulse.
Rilka stood behind him, whispering. "It's mapping us."
Eshna adjusted the straps of her pack, eyes narrowed. "Then don't stand still too long."
Karrek dropped a shard of slag from the forge onto the glass. It sank through without a sound. A second later, the light below flared, a perfect echo of the drop.
Cass watched the ripples spread until they vanished into black. "It's a membrane," he said. "Between here and whatever's underneath."
Karrek muttered, "You think there's a below the below?"
"There always is." Cass drew his spear and pointed the blade downward. "Let's see how deep."
[System]
Descent Protocol – Stage Two Initiated
Warning: Environmental resonance increasing.
Recommendation: Limit exposure time to 60 minutes.
He struck. The spearhead pierced the glass and sank halfway. A sound like a bell rang through the cavern, vibrating their bones. Rilka flinched, dropping her chalk.
From the hole, light rose—not flame but fluid radiance. It streamed up in thin threads, winding through the air like veins searching for a heart.
Eshna whispered, "Cass, it's feeding on sound."
The threads coiled toward his chest. Before he could move, they touched him—and the world flipped.
He stood on a mountainside made of bone and metal, rivers of molten sap winding through broken towers. The sky above wasn't sky but a ceiling of roots and veins. Beneath them, cities burned, each one mirrored upside down.
A voice rolled through the vision. The heart you calmed is not alone. The roots connect all shards.
Cass turned slowly. A shape stood behind him, tall and winged, formed entirely of stone dust and faint ember light. Its face was featureless but not empty.
You are of the root, it said. And the root is breaking.
He gasped and fell back into his body. The cavern tilted around him. Rilka caught his arm. "What did you see?"
"Cities," he said, voice raw. "A network beneath everything. They're connected. The shards aren't isolated. They're veins of the same body."
Eshna frowned. "If that's true, then when one breaks…"
"They all bleed," Cass finished.
[System]
Data Fragment Acquired – Subterranean Network Map (Partial)
New Objective: Locate Root Conduit Core
Progress: 18%
[Karrek]
He didn't like any of it. The mountain was one thing—solid, predictable, something you could fight. This glowing mirror flesh beneath them was something else entirely. It reminded him too much of the eel—of hunger wrapped in silence.
Still, Cass looked at it like it was a forge. Like he meant to hammer the world back into shape.
"Let's mark our way back," Karrek said. "If this thing moves, I'm not dying in circles."
Rilka nodded, already sketching sigils on the nearest wall. Her lines glowed faintly against the dark, the same green-white hue as the Ward.
[Cass]
They moved forward, following the slow pulse of the glass. It led them to a ridge overlooking a second cavern—a void so vast that their lanterns couldn't touch the far walls.
In the center stood pillars of crystal, rising from the black like frozen lightning. Between them flowed currents of light, folding and unfolding. The shape reminded Cass of lungs.
He whispered, "The mountain's heart isn't the only one."
Eshna's hand tightened on her staff. "Then this is its twin."
"No," Cass said. "This is its mouth."
[System]
Discovery Logged – Root Conduit Interface
Status: Dormant
Warning: Surface link detected. Power transfer threshold rising.
[Rilka]
She could feel it even without the system message. The energy coming off the crystals wasn't heat—it was intent. Every spark hummed in patterns, repeating every few seconds like a heartbeat.
Karrek touched one of the pillars with his hammer. The moment the metal connected, the light flared. Images rippled through the air—brief, fragmented flashes: soldiers on the surface fighting something black and winged, machines burning, cities choking in smoke.
Rilka gasped. "They're dying up there."
Cass stared at the images until they faded. "No," he said quietly. "They're already dead. We're seeing echoes."
[System]
Environmental Sync: 89%
Foreign Pulse Detected – Surface Transmission (Corrupted)
Translation pending…
The crystals brightened again. This time, the sound came first—a low murmur like countless voices whispering over each other. Then a sentence formed through the noise.
Shard Lords faltering. Infection spreading. Surface equilibrium lost.
Eshna paled. "It's a broadcast."
Karrek spat. "From who?"
Cass's voice was almost reverent. "From the world above."
The light dimmed, leaving only faint traces behind. The air grew heavy, as if holding its breath. Cass looked back at the path they'd come from. "We have to stabilize it. If the shards are connected, this one can anchor them."
Karrek shook his head. "You mean build a bridge to hell."
"Call it what you want," Cass said. "If we can stop the infection from spreading through these veins, Bastion becomes more than a tomb. It becomes a cure."
Eshna looked between them. "And if it fails?"
Cass's voice was steady. "Then it burns cleaner than the rest."
[System]
New Quest Unlocked – The Veinworks Project
Objective: Stabilize Root Conduit Interface. Prevent cross-shard contamination.
Requirements: Resource Echo Ore (≥300 units), Structural Reinforcement, Resonant Core Activation.
Reward: Bastion Expansion Tier II, Surface Link (Controlled).
[Cass]
He turned to Rilka. "Get the miners ready. We'll need every scrap of ore we can pull."
"To build what?" she asked.
He looked back at the glowing pillars. "A gate that listens."
The hum beneath their feet deepened, as though the mountain approved.
[Forum – World Noise]
[IronFist88]: "Shard readings spiked again underground. Either Ghost Lord's back or the servers are melting."
[Nocti]: "Readings match southern veins. Propervy Bastion maybe alive?"
[MetaWatcher]: "Impossible. That shard was marked extinct."
[Herald]: "New global flag: Veinworks detected. Function unknown. Observation ongoing."
[Cass]
As they began the climb back, Cass felt the pulse steady under the glass. For the first time since the sealing, he didn't hear grief in it. He heard rhythm.
The world above was breaking. The world below was waking.
And between them, Bastion's heart began to beat in time with both.