Snow fell silently across the Tibetan ruins.
Searchlights illuminated the outer excavation zone while awakened soldiers maintained formation barriers around the perimeter. The cold mountain wind carried traces of ancient spiritual energy through the valley, causing nearby communication devices to flicker occasionally.
The entire place felt unreal.
Like a fragment of another era forced back into the modern world.
Krishak stood near the edge of the excavation platform while observing the massive structure rising from beneath the mountains.
The closer he looked, the clearer the details became.
Ancient inscriptions covered nearly every visible surface of the ruins. Some resembled formation scripts. Others appeared closer to old cultivation records or warning seals.
Several sections of the architecture had collapsed long ago, likely from age or spiritual erosion, but the deeper central structure remained surprisingly intact.
Too intact.
Director Rao approached alongside a local Bureau commander wearing heavy winter gear.
"We lost two reconnaissance teams already," the commander explained immediately.
That drew everyone's attention.
"Dead?" Raghav asked.
The commander shook his head slowly.
"Missing."
A strange silence followed.
Professor Devika frowned.
"What happened exactly?"
The commander activated several holographic recordings taken earlier that evening.
The footage showed awakened scouts entering one of the lower corridors beneath the ruins. Everything appeared normal initially.
Then the recordings distorted.
Static flooded the screens briefly before strange silver light appeared deeper inside the hallway.
After that-
The scouts simply vanished.
No screams.
No signs of combat.
Nothing.
Dev stared at the footage blankly.
Nope.
Nobody even looked at him.
"The energy fluctuations interfere with tracking systems, the commander continued.
"And every team we sent afterward encountered severe spatial distortions.
Ishita's expression sharpened immediately.
"Spatial distortions?"
He nodded.
Hallways changing direction. Distances stretching unnaturally. Internal maps becoming useless."
The atmosphere grew heavier instantly.
Ancient spatial formations.
That meant the ruin was far more dangerous than ordinary awakened sites.
Krishak looked toward the lower entrance of the ruins quietly.
The faint pulse he sensed earlier had grown clearer now.
Something deep underground was still functioning.
Not corruption.
Not a beast.
A formation.
And an extremely advanced one.
"Take us to the last stable checkpoint, Krishak said calmly.
The commander hesitated briefly before nodding.
"This way.
The expedition team moved through the outer ruins carefully beneath layers of snowfall and floodlights.
Massive stone pathways stretched between broken statues covered in ice while ancient pillars towered overhead like silent guardians of a forgotten civilization.
Every step deeper into the ruins increased the strange pressure in the air.
Even Dev stopped joking eventually.
Ananya brushed snow from one of the nearby inscriptions while walking.
"These symbols are similar to the prison chamber."
Krishak glanced toward them briefly.
" "They belong to the same era.
That realization unsettled everyone again.
The underground prison beneath the academy had already revealed terrifying truths about ancient Earth.
If these ruins were connected
Then what else had existed during that age?
Eventually, the group reached a gigantic stairway descending beneath the mountains.
Formation barriers surrounded the entrance while multiple awakened soldiers guarded the perimeter nervously.
The commander stopped there.
"This is where the distortions begin.
Below them, darkness stretched endlessly underground.
Cold air drifted upward carrying traces of ancient qi.
And beneath it all-
That rhythmic pulse continued.
Steady.
Waiting.
Krishak stepped toward the entrance first.
The moment his foot crossed the boundary—
The ancient inscriptions across the stairway walls flickered faintly.
Everyone froze.
Silver light spread briefly through the runes before fading again.
Professor Devika looked stunned.
"The formation reacted to him."
Krishak's expression remained calm, but inwardly, his thoughts sharpened.
The Starheart inheritance was resonating with the ruins.
Meaning this place truly belonged to the Stellar Hall era.
Raghav rested one hand on his weapon.
"That can't possibly be ominous.
"Everything is ominous now," Dev muttered quietly.
The group descended slowly into the darkness.
The deeper they traveled, the stranger the environment became.
The walls appeared impossibly smooth despite their age. Ancient crystals embedded throughout the corridors emitted faint silver light while spatial energy drifted subtly through the air like invisible currents.
And the silence
Felt unnatural.
No wind.
No distant echoes.
Only footsteps.
After nearly fifteen minutes of descent, the corridor finally opened into an enormous underground chamber.
Everyone stopped immediately.
The hall before them was massive enough to contain entire buildings.
Gigantic stone pillars stretched upward into darkness while countless ancient formations glowed faintly across the floor. Broken statues lined the outer edges of the chamber, each depicting cultivators wearing unfamiliar robes beneath patterns resembling stars and moons.
At the center of the hall stood a colossal circular platform.
And above it -
A floating sphere of silver light.
The moment Krishak saw it, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Because it resembled the projection sphere from the underground prison.
But smaller.
Far weaker.
Ishita stared upward in disbelief.
"That thing is still active after thousands of years.."
Professor Devika slowly approached one of the nearby formations.
"No..."
Her voice became quieter.
"It's waiting."
Suddenly-
The silver sphere pulsed once.
The entire underground chamber trembled lightly.
Ancient runes illuminated across the walls one after another.
And then-
A voice echoed through the hall.
Calm.
Ancient.
And unmistakably alive.
"Identity confirmed."