The spiral passage narrowed the deeper they went, until Elias felt the walls pressing inward like a throat swallowing them. Drifting dust shimmered in pale lines, glowing faintly with residual resonance from long-dead Bonekeepers.Seren whispered behind him, “This place feels… wrong.”Caedia’s blind eyes lifted slightly. “Because it is. No living Bonekeeper ever returned from this descent.”Sylare squeaked. “Then why are we going this way?”“Because,” Caedia answered calmly, “it is the only path that takes us beneath the palace. The Alchemists sealed every other route.”Elias kept moving. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lyra dragged through the palace, screaming his name, taken because she refused to betray him.The thought alone sent a pulse of echo-light flickering through his veins. Seren noticed immediately. “Elias… your bones are glowing again.”“I know,” he muttered.“Then breathe,” she whispered, touching his arm lightly. “You promised not to burn yourself alive.”Caedia added,

The chamber at the base of the Resonance Tower pulsed with a faint, wounded glow, as if the runes themselves were trying to breathe through cracks in their own design.Elias stared at the torn sigils along the walls, heart hammering. Seren whispered, “This place looks… wrong. Like something hollowed it out.”Caedia stepped past them, fingers brushing a shattered rune line. Her expression tightened. “This wasn’t broken naturally.”Elias frowned. “The Alchemists?”“No.” Caedia’s voice dropped. “Something older. Something angry.”A thin tremor rolled through the floor, vibrating up Elias’s legs like a heartbeat out of rhythm. Seren grabbed his sleeve. “Elias… that wasn’t the tower, was it?”Before he could answer, another pulse struck stronger this time, almost a shove. Elias exhaled sharply. “No. That felt like an Echo. A big one.”Sylare, still weak but standing with the help of a bone-carved staff Seren found for her, whispered, “What could make the tower shake like that?”Caedia glan

The torchlight flickered against the rib-carved chamber walls, making long, skeletal shadows dance across the floor. Elias stood in the center of the chamber breathing hard, body trembling staring at the sigil carved on the ground.It wasn’t just a symbol. It pulsed. As if alive. Seren touched his shoulder gently. “Elias… are you sure we should be here?”“No,” he whispered, “but we don’t have a choice.”Caedia’s staff tapped the floor three times, echoing sharply. “This is the oldest Bonekeeper sanctum in the lower tunnels. If Lyra left any trace, any message, any plea… it would be here.”Seren glanced at the sigil’s glowing marrow-lines. “It feels like it’s watching us.”“It is,” Caedia replied calmly. Seren flinched. “Why would you say it like that?!”Elias stepped forward, heart pounding as the sigil brightened at his presence. The glow responded to him. Only him. Seren whispered, “It’s reacting to your Echo.”Elias didn’t move. “Or calling to it.” Caedia turned her head toward the

The underground shrine trembled with the force of the last blast Elias released. Dust drifted from the carved bone ceiling in pale clouds as the echo of the resonance finally faded.Seren coughed and waved her hand. “Elias you almost brought the entire chamber down on our heads!”Elias leaned against a pillar, chest heaving, sweat sliding down his temples. His bones still flickered with faint white light beneath his skin like dying stars.“I had to break the seal,” he said between breaths. “It wouldn’t open any other way.”Caedia’s blind eyes glowed faintly as she traced her hand over the newly exposed runes. “You didn’t break the seal, Elias. You woke it.”Seren frowned. “Is that good or bad?”Caedia answered quietly. “That depends… on what wakes up with it.”Elias straightened. “You said this shrine belongs to the First Bonekeeper. If there’s something here that can help us get through the northern tunnels faster, we need it.”“We do,” Caedia agreed. “But awakening relics of the Fir

The underground passage shuddered as if trying to breathe. Dust drifted from the carved ribbed ceiling; the bone-lined walls trembled with deep, pulsing resonance.Seren pressed close to Elias, eyes wide. “Elias… something’s wrong with the tunnel.”Caedia steadied herself on her staff. “It’s not the tunnel. It’s the palace above us. The resonance field protecting the royal foundation… it’s collapsing.”Sylare still weak, but walking stumbled. “The Alchemists… they must be forcing another surge.”Elias felt the vibration deep in his spine. “They’re preparing the ritual.” Seren grabbed his arm. “Then Lyra.”“I know.” His voice cracked with urgency. “We’re running out of time.”Before anyone could respond, a thunderous boom echoed above them. Stones cracked. The ceiling flaked, raining shards of bone-dust.Seren yelped. Elias instinctively pulled her into his arms and shielded her body. The collapse stopped as suddenly as it started.Caedia tilted her head, listening. “The palace guard j