The air inside the ruins felt heavier than the forest outside, as if time itself had stopped breathing. Moss crept along ancient stone pillars, and faint carvings stretched across the walls like whispers of a language none of them could read. Luka shivered, pulling his jacket tighter.
"I'm telling you," he muttered, running a hand across the frost-dusted stone, "this place hasn't seen daylight in centuries."
Kira smirked, brushing dust from his dark hair as he adjusted the flashlight. "And yet here we are—lucky enough to be the idiots who found it." His voice carried that reckless spark that always seemed to get them in trouble.
Auriana trailed her fingers along a cracked wall, her green eyes shimmering with curiosity. "This isn't just some old temple. It feels… alive."
"Alive?" Fey raised a brow, pushing her auburn hair from her face as she crouched by a small pool of water trickling from the stones. Ripples trembled across its surface, though she hadn't touched it. "I'd rather it didn't come alive."
The four exchanged uneasy glances, but none of them suggested leaving. The deeper they went, the stronger the hum beneath their feet became, like the earth itself was holding its breath.
At the heart of the sanctuary, they found it—an altar cracked open, glowing faintly with an unnatural blue-green radiance. Strange runes pulsed along its edges, and as they stepped closer, the glow brightened, swelling like a heartbeat.
"Okay," Luka whispered, ice fogging from his breath even though the air wasn't cold, "that's not normal."
Before anyone could respond, the sanctuary roared to life.
Light exploded from the altar, a shockwave ripping through the chamber. It wasn't just light—it was something raw, something alive. The force slammed into them, searing their skin, burrowing deep beneath their bones. Fey gasped, clutching her chest as water surged unnaturally from the pool beside her. Auriana's hand stretched out for balance, only to see vines curling from cracks in the floor toward her fingertips.
Kira staggered, his veins glowing faint electric-blue as arcs of lightning crawled across his arms. Luka dropped to his knees, the air frosting instantly around him, shards of ice spiraling out from where he knelt.
And then—darkness.
The ruins, the light, the shockwave… all of it vanished in an instant.
When they opened their eyes again, they weren't in the sanctuary. They were home—safe, unscathed, lying in their own beds as though none of it had ever happened.
But deep inside, something had changed. Something was waiting.
Something was awake.
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