The heavy door groaned behind them as it sealed shut, and the echo of its closing rolled like thunder through the hollow corridors of Volgrath Keep.
Torchlight flickered against damp stone, casting long shadows that moved like phantoms along the arched walls. The air was thick, not just with the chill of centuries but with a weight that clung to their skin — old, watching, heavy with memory.
Liam tightened his grip on his blade, the steel humming faintly with residual energy from their earlier confrontation. Kael stepped to his side, axe slung over his shoulder, while Nyra and Aeris followed, both silent, both tense.
"This place…" Nyra whispered. "It remembers pain."
Aeris didn't respond at first. She was staring up at the towering walls etched with faded runes — some Realm-script, others unfamiliar even to her.
"It's not just a fortress," she murmured finally. "It's a vault. And a grave."
Kael snorted, more to keep his nerves steady than out of mockery. "Perfect place for a monster's heart."
They moved deeper, their footsteps muted by centuries of dust. The walls narrowed the further in they went, pressing close like the bones of some great creature swallowing them whole.
They came upon a circular chamber. Runes lit up on the walls as they entered — not with light, but with memory. Ghostly images shimmered to life across the stone: a battle, a woman in silver armor, a gate of fire, Nytherion's face twisted in rage, and then—
Elira.
But not as they remembered her. Younger. Wounded. Standing alone at the heart of the keep, facing something that looked like… a void.
Liam staggered as the vision flickered through him like lightning. His chest tightened.
"She was here," he whispered. "This was one of her last stands."
Aeris stepped forward slowly, eyes wide. "No… This wasn't her stand. This was her prison."
The visions faded, and with them, the strange warmth that had filled the room vanished. A bitter cold swept in its place. From somewhere deep below, a low, guttural growl rumbled.
The keep was waking.
Suddenly, the floor trembled beneath them. The runes along the wall glowed again — not memory, but alarm.
"Move!" Kael shouted.
A section of the floor crumbled behind them as tendrils of black, oily smoke snaked upward. From the shadows emerged twisted figures, armored in shards of bone and shadow — Wraithguard. Corrupted echoes of ancient protectors, now servants of whatever darkness still lingered in Volgrath.
They didn't speak. They just charged.
Liam blocked the first strike with a grunt, the force of it driving him back. Kael met another head-on, swinging with brute strength. Sparks flew as steel met corrupted bone.
"Focus!" Aeris yelled, summoning a shield of violet energy around Nyra, who was already chanting under her breath. Her summoned beast — a spectral wolf made of flickering ash and ember — lunged at a Wraithguard, tearing into its chest.
Liam rolled under a slash and sliced upward, cleaving through shadow and bone. But the Wraithguard didn't die easily. Their forms reformed from smoke, bones snapping back into place.
"They react to the fragments!" Nyra yelled. "Use the magic!"
Kael adjusted, channeling wind through his axe. Every swing pushed the Wraithguard back with a booming gust. Aeris summoned spears of condensed energy, piercing the enemy's cores before they could regenerate.
The battle pushed them through the chamber, and toward a winding stairwell veiled in shadow. One by one, they broke through the last line of Wraithguard and descended — not waiting for the dark to catch up.
As they reached the lower level, the air changed.
It grew… still.
The oppressive heat of magic hung in the air. A massive chamber opened before them — circular, with a dais in the center. Suspended above it was a crystalline heart — pulsing with black and crimson light. It wasn't beating… it was screaming. In pulses of pressure, of fury, of something ancient and vile.
Nyra recoiled. "That's not a heart. That's a curse."
Kael stared up at it. "You sure this is what we're here for?"
Liam stepped forward, chest rising and falling. "It's the core of the keep. Whatever Nytherion left here… it's inside that."
Aeris was deathly quiet. Her eyes never left the crystal. "We have to sever it. Not just touch it. Not just awaken it."
"You're afraid," Kael said softly, not accusing — just observing.
She nodded. "Because I've seen something like this before. And last time… we lost everything."
Liam placed a hand on her shoulder. "This time, we don't lose."
And then the ground shook again.
But it wasn't from above.
It came from within.
The heart exploded with light — and a figure dropped from the shadows of the ceiling. Clad in jagged, red-etched armor, a helm like a broken crown over its face. Its presence was suffocating.
It spoke with a voice like rust and flame. "You bear what does not belong to you."
Kael raised his weapon. "You'll have to be more specific."
The creature raised a hand, and chains of shadow lashed toward them. Liam and Kael dove aside. Nyra summoned a barrier of light, barely deflecting the blow. Aeris countered with a blast of arcane force that cracked the dais beneath the heart.
The being snarled. "This realm will drown in what you awaken."
Liam stepped forward. "Then drown with us."
And the chamber erupted into chaos once more.