The tunnel grew tighter with every step. The stone walls pressed in, bare and silent. There were no inscriptions, no glowing lines, no lingering spells. Even the mana in the air felt thinner.
Marth didn't slow down.
He stepped through the last archway and into a chamber that didn't look carved, but grown. A smooth, circular platform floated above a dark void. It hovered without support. At its center stood a black pedestal. Resting atop it was a large, beating heart.
It pulsed once. Then again. Slow and steady.
The thing was massive—twice the size of a human torso. Its surface was hard, like scaled armor fused with flesh. Veins of hardened mana coiled around it. Each beat stirred the platform slightly beneath Marth's boots.
Above the heart floated a crystal, suspended by an invisible force.
He stepped forward and raised a hand to the crystal.
The memory inside it activated.
A soft voice filled his head—flat, methodical.
"The corpse was discovered in the deepest fold of collapsed space. No wounds. No damage. Death by unknown cause."
Images filled his mind: a creature with a twisted frame, larger than any beast he had seen in this life. Its body bent the light around it. Muscle and bone blended with armor-like growths. It had more than one shape, and none of them were stable.
"Subject retained function of a transformation-type Origin Spell at time of death. The spell lingered in the flesh. Analysis confirmed residual fragments remained in the heart."
"From study of the body and soul remnants, partial spell recovery was achieved. The spell allows complete transformation into another being—appearance, structure, and abilities—if specific conditions are met."
The voice stopped.
Marth lowered his hand.
The heart still pulsed slowly, as if the magic in it refused to let it die.
He stared at it for a while. He had seen many strange artifacts, both in this life and the last. But this... this wasn't just rare. It was one of a kind.
The spell fragment didn't linger in the air. It was bound inside the heart.
Marth stepped closer. The containment field around the organ shimmered faintly. He reached out and placed a hand on it.
The mana shifted and parted.
A sharp wave of warmth spread through his arm. He felt something enter his mind—not a full spell, but a shard of it. A sliver of intent, broken and incomplete, yet clear enough to study and eventually rebuild.
It settled behind his thoughts. Not bound to his soul. Just resting there. Waiting.
He studied the heart again.
The surface was dense. The layers beneath it seemed to still pulse with magic. Whoever had stored it here clearly failed to extract everything from it. That was their mistake.
He could still gain more from it. Maybe even rework the broken spell fragment over time.
He crouched beside the pedestal, drew a containment sigil, and activated his storage array. With one silent gesture, the heart and its platform vanished into his pocket dimension.
As the magic dispersed, the platform dimmed and the floating symbols faded.
The ruin had gone quiet again.
Marth turned to look behind him. The archway had sealed itself.
There was no other visible door. No hidden tunnel.
This chamber was the end.
The core.
He stood still for a few seconds, thinking.
The ruin had stopped giving him trials. It had shown him what it held—no illusions, no tests. Just memory. Just the last piece of something that had died long ago and left behind this place as a vault.
And now, that vault was empty.
He left the platform and stepped onto the final sigil etched into the floor. A ripple of magic spread outward. The entire chamber trembled once, and a soft blue light wrapped around his body.
The ruin began its shutdown.
Stone folded inward behind him. Walls smoothed over with a layer of translucent crystal. The core sealed itself away.
Marth was already walking back the way he came.
He said nothing. He thought nothing loud enough to linger.
But the remnant of the spell sat quietly in his mind.
A spell that allowed full transformation, if the price was right.
He didn't need to rush. He had time. Time to understand it, shape it, and eventually—use it.