Kaelen's shadow blade pierced the guardian's core. A catastrophic surge of temporal energy erupted outwards, shattering sections of the dais and sending shockwaves through the chamber.
The guardian emitted a final, keening resonance before its crystalline form fractured and collapsed, the temporal energies within it dissipating.
With the guardian neutralized, they cautiously approached the Chronarium Heart. As Yin Lin reached out, her hand hovering over the pulsating orb, a powerful psychic surge flooded her mind, amplified by the Heart's immense temporal energy.
This time, the visions were clearer, more coherent, a direct outpouring of the crystalline beings' history and their desperate plight.
They witnessed the slow, agonizing decline of the crystalline civilization's homeworld. The once vibrant, ice-covered planet was now a frigid wasteland, its atmosphere thinning, its energy sources depleted.
The crystalline beings, their forms becoming brittle and their internal light dimming, were slowly succumbing to the encroaching cold.
They saw their leaders making the desperate decision to utilize the last vestiges of their temporal technology to seek refuge in the past, a last-ditch effort to save their race from extinction.
The Chronarium Heart was their only hope, a vessel capable of carrying them back to a time when their world still thrived.
"Their world… it's dying, has been for millennia," Yin Lin gasped, tears welling in her eyes, the psychic echoes of their despair still resonating within her. "They see the Chronarium Heart not as a weapon, but as a vessel of salvation."
Just then, the crystalline leader materialized before them, its form flickering with an urgency they had not seen before.
Its clicking language, now tinged with a raw desperation, conveyed a clearer message through Yin Lin's empathic translation: "Time… runs… out… our… survival… depends… on… this."