"You’re unusually quiet all of a sudden... Is everything okay?" Georgia’s voice echoed softly through the dim inner sanctum corridor as she walked beside Christian beneath huge black-silver walls engraved with ancient Veilborn inscriptions, their surfaces pulsing faintly with dormant crimson energy while the deeper chambers ahead radiated increasingly violent relic resonance.Christian did not answer immediately.His sharp gaze remained fixed ahead, calm yet noticeably heavier than before, while Mary’s blade rested loosely in his hand and the completed five-fragment key beneath his coat pulsed steadily against his chest like a second heartbeat.The deeper they moved into the sanctuary, the stronger it became.The relic, and its presence no longer felt distant... It felt mostly aware.After several minutes, Christian finally exhaled quietly. "I’m just thinking." Ezra, floating several feet ahead of them with far less laziness than usual, glanced back briefly."That," he remarked dryl

"The deepest laboratory…."Ezra’s voice lowered sharply after looking at what was projected before him, the usual carelessness that constantly lingered around him disappearing almost instantly as his calm eyes remained fixed on the glowing map suspended above the ruined sanctum floor, while beside him, even Georgia’s breathing seemed to still for a brief moment under the unbearable weight of what they were witnessing.Mary’s projection continued."The Veilborn could not fully destroy the relic because its existence became bound to the gate itself. So they turned instead toward convergence research…" Her gaze lowered slightly. "and toward me." Christian’s breathing slowed, something cold settled gradually inside him.Not fear or confusion but resolve.Yet beneath that growing resolve, there was pain.A deep, suffocating kind of pain he had been suppressing ever since this journey began.Because until this moment, despite all the clues, despite the fragments, despite the path Mary her

"Umm..." Georgia’s expression changed slightly, as if pain, sympathy, something heavier, all together came at a time."There were five," she said softly.Christian’s gaze shifted toward her immediately remembering the term he heard in between all these illusions. "The Original Five." Georgia nodded slowly."Yes." Something inside Christian immediately connected pieces together before she even continued.His voice lowered slightly as he knew the only time she hesitates when it's connected to him. "By any chance are you talking about my family?" Georgia closed her eyes briefly before answering."Yes." Christian’s breathing slowed, "My uncles..."Another nod."My aunts," he added quietly."Yes.""Are you sure?" Georgia’s voice became softer and calmer, "Yes... I've been hearing this since I was young and I'm sure about it." Silence crashed heavily between them, because suddenly, things made sense.The unnatural intelligence, the strange emotional complexity surrounding the Sargent

"I thought I might leave without even seeing you," Christian gritted his teeth in anger after everything the man standing in front of him did. "But thankfully you yourself showed up! I'll not step out of this place without regret." "You inherited Adrian’s arrogance surprisingly well."The calm voice filled throughout the containment sector with such unnatural clarity that even the convergence alarms ringing through the underground laboratory seemed to lower beneath its presence while the crimson lights flickering across the steel corridors cast unstable shadows over the enormous chamber surrounding Christian, Georgia, Ezra, and Mary’s prison.Christian’s expression darkened immediately as he slowly turned toward the corridor disappearing into darkness beyond the containment sector, his grip tightening around Mary’s blade while the relic beneath his coat pulsed faintly in direct response to the overwhelming pressure spreading throughout the laboratory.It was not an ordinary spiritual

"Dad.... tell me this isn't real.... Did Ezra really leave me alone?" Christian's voice broke beneath the open sky of the Dark Mountains as he stood motionless upon shattered stone and broken sanctums while the final traces of silver spiritual light drifted upward into the dawn like fragments of stars returning to the heavens.The forbidden gate was gone.The screaming fractures that had torn through reality moments earlier had vanished completely.The whispers beyond the veil had fallen silent.The mountain itself, which had spent centuries trembling beneath corruption and forbidden rituals, had finally grown quiet, all the half dead, veilborn creatures dragged back into behind the gate.The world had survived.Ezra had not.Christian remained standing exactly where Ezra had disappeared, his eyes fixed upon the empty space before him while the cold mountain wind moved through his hair and clothes as if nature itself refused to disturb his grief.His hands trembled slightly at his si