The air around the Core Seal was thicker than gravity.
Light refracted from every surface, bending inward toward the massive suspended rune at the heart of the chamber. The rune spun lazily, incomplete—its final line missing, as if waiting for someone to draw it and finish the spell that kept the entire temple alive… or barely standing.
The others stood back, instinctively aware that they'd reached something important.
Something alive.
Argolaith stepped forward.
The cube hovered beside him, now fully transformed—no longer a simple shape, but a living construct of interwoven planes, rings and runes spinning in harmony like a galaxy bound within itself. Lines of pale gold and spectral blue traced its edges.
Each breath it took pulsed with mana.
Each turn of its structure whispered something older than language.
"It's ready," he murmured.
The chamber responded.
The walls shivered with light.
