The staircase seemed endless.
Ancient black stone stretched downward into a darkness so deep that even the enchanted lanterns carried by the expedition struggled to illuminate it. Their golden light pushed back the shadows for a few meters before being swallowed completely, leaving the lower reaches of the stairway hidden beneath an ocean of darkness.
The deeper they descended, the quieter everyone became.
At first there had been conversation.
Small observations.
Quiet warnings.
The occasional joke from Aren.
Now there was only silence.
The bells continued ringing somewhere below.
Each sound traveled upward through the stone like a pulse moving through the body of some sleeping giant. The rhythm remained slow. Steady. Almost peaceful.
That was somehow the worst part.
The bells didn't sound threatening.
They sounded welcoming.
Kael hated that.
The expedition had been descending for nearly twenty minutes when the architecture began to change. The upper temple had been built from black stone covered with symbols and statues.
The lower levels were different.
The walls became smoother.
Older.
The carvings vanished.
The symbols disappeared.
Even the stone itself seemed different.
The deeper they traveled, the more it felt as though they were leaving the temple behind and entering something far older.
Aren noticed it too.
The boy ran one hand along the wall before immediately pulling it away.
"I don't like that."
Lyra glanced toward him.
"The wall?"
"The fact that the wall feels warm."
The group froze.
Several nearby soldiers immediately touched the stone.
Their expressions changed.
The wall wasn't hot.
But it wasn't cold either.
Considering they were standing beneath a frozen continent, that should have been impossible.
Aren looked deeply offended by reality.
"See?"
Nobody answered.
Because he was right.
The stone felt alive.
Not literally.
Hopefully.
But there was a strange warmth hidden beneath its surface.
As though heat existed somewhere deep below.
General Caelan continued forward without slowing.
The military commander had become even more focused since the journal revealed the existence of the lower city. His gaze remained fixed on the darkness ahead while officers quietly relayed reports through communication crystals.
So far, no threats had appeared.
That somehow made everyone more nervous.
A sudden sound echoed through the staircase.
Not a bell.
A voice.
The expedition immediately stopped.
Weapons appeared.
Mana surged.
Dozens of eyes scanned the darkness.
The sound came again.
Soft.
Distant.
Barely audible.
Someone was singing.
The melody drifted upward from the darkness below.
A simple tune.
Gentle.
Beautiful.
For a brief moment, nobody moved.
The voice sounded familiar.
Kael frowned.
The realization struck him immediately.
The voice wasn't familiar because he recognized the song.
The voice itself felt familiar.
As though he had heard it before.
Beside him, Lyra's expression changed.
Aren looked confused.
Several soldiers stared into the darkness.
The singing continued.
Soft.
Gentle.
Inviting.
Then General Caelan's voice cut through the stairway like a blade.
"Focus."
The spell shattered instantly.
People blinked.
Several soldiers visibly recoiled.
One researcher stumbled backward.
The singing continued.
Yet its effect seemed weaker now.
As though simply recognizing the danger had reduced its influence.
Aren looked horrified.
"Absolutely not."
Nobody asked.
The boy pointed downward.
"We're leaving."
"We're not."
"We should."
Selene sighed.
"You say that every day."
"Because every day I become more correct."
Nobody could argue with that.
The expedition resumed its descent.
This time, however, everyone maintained a greater distance from the edge of the formation. Nobody wanted to drift away. Nobody wanted to be alone.
The singing continued.
Sometimes it sounded distant.
Sometimes it sounded close.
Yet whenever someone tried focusing on the melody, they immediately forgot what it sounded like.
The experience felt strangely unsettling.
Like trying to remember a dream after waking.
The further they descended, the stronger the warmth became.
Soon, the air no longer felt cold.
The change happened gradually enough that nobody noticed immediately.
One moment they were walking through the frozen depths beneath the temple.
The next, their breath had stopped forming mist.
Aren noticed first.
The boy looked around suspiciously.
"Why am I comfortable?"
Nobody answered.
That question disturbed everyone.
Because they were standing beneath a continent covered by snow and ice.
There was no reason for the air to be warm.
Yet it was.
A faint orange glow appeared below.
The expedition immediately slowed.
After hours of darkness, the distant light looked almost unreal.
General Caelan raised one hand.
The formation stopped.
Silence spread through the stairway.
The bells had stopped ringing.
The singing had stopped too.
Only the distant glow remained.
The military commander motioned toward several scouts.
They moved ahead immediately.
The rest waited.
The atmosphere became unbearable.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Several minutes passed.
Then the scouts returned.
Their expressions revealed everything.
They had found something.
Something important.
General Caelan stepped forward.
"What is it?"
The lead scout hesitated.
Then answered.
"We reached the bottom."
A murmur spread through the formation.
The military commander frowned.
"And?"
The scout swallowed.
For several moments, he seemed unable to find the words.
Then he finally spoke.
"It's a city."
Silence.
Nobody reacted immediately.
Not because the answer was surprising.
Because hearing it spoken aloud made it real.
The lower city existed.
Captain Hale hadn't been hallucinating.
The journal hadn't been lying.
Aren slowly closed his eyes.
"Of course it is."
Nobody laughed.
The scout continued.
"It's enormous."
A pause.
"Bigger than the ruins above."
The expedition became completely silent.
Bigger?
How?
The city on the surface already stretched across kilometers of frozen wilderness.
How could something larger exist beneath it?
The scout looked toward the darkness below.
His expression remained troubled.
"There's more."
Nobody liked those words.
General Caelan folded his arms.
"What?"
The scout swallowed.
Then answered quietly.
"The city isn't abandoned."
The world seemed to stop.
No one spoke.
No one breathed.
Even the ancient stairway felt silent.
The scout looked pale.
Very pale.
As though he wished he hadn't seen what waited below.
General Caelan's voice remained calm.
"What did you see?"
The man hesitated.
Then pointed toward the distant orange glow.
"We saw lights."
A pause.
"Thousands of them."
Another pause.
"And..."
His voice became quieter.
"We saw people."
The silence that followed felt endless.
Because everyone immediately remembered the journal.
The final warning.
The lower city.
The people below.
Still alive.
Aren stared at the scout for several seconds.
Then looked toward the darkness beneath them.
Then back toward the scout.
"That's impossible."
Nobody disagreed.
The problem was that impossible things had stopped mattering the moment they entered the Northern Frontier.
The scout lowered his gaze.
"There was one more thing."
General Caelan nodded.
"Speak."
The man swallowed.
Then answered.
"They were all looking up."
A chill spread through the expedition.
Not because of the words.
Because of the way he said them.
The scout wasn't describing people living their lives.
He wasn't describing citizens moving through a city.
He was describing thousands of figures standing perfectly still.
Waiting.
Watching.
Looking directly toward the staircase.
As though they had known the expedition was coming.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the orange glow of the lower city—
A bell rang once.