The arch swallowed them in light, and for a breathless moment there was nothing but radiance. Then the brilliance faded, and they stood within a chamber unlike anything they had yet seen.
The cavern here was vast—larger than any cathedral. Its walls were layered in crystalline ridges, each shard glowing softly, casting rivers of color across the air. Suspended at the center of the chamber was a single, massive crystal heart.
It wasn't stone. It wasn't mineral. It pulsed, alive, as though it carried the breath of the world itself. Every beat sent ripples of energy through the air, vibrations that they felt in their bones.
Jonas let out a low whistle. "So this is it. The thing everything here was protecting."
Mara's expression was unreadable, her eyes locked on the heart as though it were a weapon and a miracle all at once. "The power of an entire civilization… still beating."
Liora stepped forward, her hands trembling, her voice soft. "No. Not just power. Memory. This heart… it carries their entire story. Their rise. Their fall. Everything they were."
The heart shuddered, as if answering her words.
Eris felt it then—the weight of connection. It wasn't just glowing. It was reaching. Into him. Testing him. Calling him.
His chest tightened. He staggered a step closer, his breath uneven. The others watched in silence, wary but unable to intervene.
The crystal's rhythm aligned with his heartbeat. Slow at first, then faster, until the two beat as one.
And with it came visions. A thousand lives rushing through his mind. The forging of the crystalline basin. The warriors who had guarded it. The war against shadows that had consumed them. And finally, the desperate choice to bind everything they were into this single, pulsing core.
Eris gasped, clutching his temples, overwhelmed.
A voice—not echo, not illusion—spoke within him.
"Descendant of Seven… the choice is upon you. Will you bear the weight of what was lost, or let it fade into silence?"
The crystal heart pulsed brighter, filling the chamber with blinding light.
Mara stepped back, raising her arm against the glare. Jonas muttered a curse. Even Liora shielded her eyes, though she smiled faintly, as if she knew this was meant to happen.
Eris stood trembling in the radiance, his figure outlined against the crystal's glow. He felt both crushed and uplifted, his soul pulled in two directions—toward the promise of immeasurable strength, and the threat of being consumed by it.
The Heart of the Basin had chosen him.
But it had not yet revealed what price it demanded.