The crimson pillar pierced the heavens.
Clouds spiraled around it, illuminated by streaks of black lightning.
The earth continued to tremble beneath our feet.
Every Crystal Wolf stopped fighting.
Every hunter lowered their weapon.
For a single, haunting moment…
The battlefield stood still.
Then the Corrupted Alpha slowly turned toward the pillar and knelt.
Not before me.
Not before the sanctuary.
Before whatever was awakening beneath the forest.
Hunter Bran staggered to his feet, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
“What…
is that thing?”
Elder Rowan didn’t answer immediately.
His eyes never left the crimson light.
Finally, he whispered,
“I don’t know.”
“And that frightens me.”
The Origin Core blazed before my eyes.
Emergency Directive Issued
Priority One: Prevent the Prison Seal from Breaking.
Estimated Time Until Full Breach: 27 Minutes.
Failure Consequence: Regional Extinction Event.
Regional…
Not just Ashwood.
Everything within hundreds of kilometers.
My stomach tightened.
Twenty-seven minutes.
That was all we had.
The Corrupted Alpha rose once more.
Its crimson eyes settled on me.
“You…”
“…cannot stop…”
“…what has already begun.”
Its voice sounded clearer than before.
Almost as though the growing pillar of crimson energy was strengthening it.
I tightened my grip on my spear.
“Maybe.”
“But I’ll try.”
For the first time…
The Alpha laughed.
A deep, rumbling sound that carried neither joy nor mockery.
Only certainty.
“That…”
“…is why…”
“…you were chosen.”
Without warning, the Alpha thrust one claw into its own chest.
The hunters stared in confusion.
Dark crimson energy poured from the wound.
Instead of falling to the ground, it spread across the battlefield like liquid shadows.
Every fallen Crystal Wolf began to tremble.
Hunter Ellis’s face turned pale.
“They’re…”
“They’re moving.”
Broken bones snapped back into place.
Cracked crystal reformed.
One after another…
The wolves climbed back to their feet.
Their crimson eyes burned brighter than before.
Corruption Regeneration Detected.
Normal attacks no longer sufficient.
Recommendation: Destroy corruption source.
“The Alpha!”
I shouted.
“As long as it lives, the wolves won’t stay dead!”
Hunter Milo nodded instantly.
“Everyone!”
“Ignore the lesser wolves!”
“We bring down their leader!”
The hunters changed formation without hesitation.
Bran and Daren charged from opposite sides.
Ellis covered them with arrows.
Milo rushed straight through the center.
For the first time since the battle began…
The Alpha moved to defend itself.
Meanwhile…
The crimson pillar continued growing.
I felt something calling to me.
Not the Alpha.
Not the wolves.
Something beneath the sanctuary.
Something ancient.
Something connected to the Origin Core.
The symbol on the back of my right hand burned.
Legacy Key Resonance Detected.
Hidden Emergency Access Available.
Would you like to activate?
Before I could react, another voice echoed inside my mind.
Not the mechanical voice of the Origin Core.
The Guardian.
“Heir…”
“…the hunters cannot stop what is awakening.”
“Only you can restore the First Seal.”
I looked around.
Hunter Bran had already been thrown backward again.
Ellis had exhausted nearly half his arrows.
Even Elder Rowan was forced onto the defensive.
They were buying time.
Time…
For me.
“Rowan!”
I shouted.
The Elder turned briefly.
“I know how to stop this!”
His eyes widened.
“You do?”
“I think so!”
“I have to reach the sanctuary!”
Several hunters immediately protested.
“It’s too dangerous!”
Hunter Milo, however, remained silent.
He looked into my eyes.
Searching.
Finally, he smiled.
“Then go.”
Hunter Bran spun around.
“Are you insane?”
Milo shook his head.
“No.”
“I’ve been training him for months.”
“I know that look.”
“He’s already made his decision.”
He placed one hand on my shoulder.
“We’ll hold them.”
“No matter what.”
I stared at the hunters.
At Grandma Mira helping the wounded.
At the villagers refusing to abandon one another despite the terror surrounding them.
This village…
Had accepted me when I was nobody.
Now it was my turn to protect it.
I bowed deeply.
“I’ll come back.”
Grandma Mira smiled through tear-filled eyes.
“You’d better.”
“I still haven’t taught you my winter stew recipe.”
Despite everything…
I laughed.
“So that’s what you’re worried about?”
She gently flicked my forehead.
“Go.”
“And don’t make an old woman wait too long.”
I turned toward the eastern forest.
The crimson pillar illuminated the path ahead.
Behind me, Hunter Milo raised his spear.
“Hunters!”
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
“We hold this line!”
“No beast…”
“…takes another step!”
A chorus of battle cries answered him.
The hunters charged.
The Alpha roared.
Steel met crystal once more.
I sprinted into the forest alone.
The mark of the First Origin Key glowed brighter with every step.
Somewhere beneath the ancient trees…
The prison was waiting.
And so was the truth behind the Origin Legacy.
The forest blurred around me.
Branches whipped past my face as I ran toward the crimson pillar.
Behind me, the sounds of battle gradually faded.
Hunter Milo.
Elder Rowan.
Grandma Mira.
They were risking everything to buy me a few precious minutes.
I couldn’t fail them.
The mark of the First Origin Key pulsed with every heartbeat.
Each pulse made the path ahead clearer.
The Origin Core wasn’t simply guiding me.
It was revealing something that had always been hidden.
Ancient runes shimmered faintly on rocks and tree trunks.
They formed a trail invisible to ordinary eyes.
A trail leading deeper into the eastern forest.
Legacy Key Resonance: Active.
Emergency Route Unlocked.
Estimated Time to Inner Seal: 9 Minutes.
Nine minutes.
The countdown had become terrifyingly short.
I pushed my body harder.
The deeper I ran, the stranger the forest became.
The birds had vanished.
The insects were silent.
Even the wind refused to enter this place.
Then…
I stopped.
Before me stood a massive stone archway half-buried beneath centuries of vines.
It hadn’t been there before.
Or perhaps…
It had always been hidden.
The arch was carved with the same ancient script as the sanctuary.
At its center floated a translucent barrier of silver light.
The moment I approached, the mark on my hand shone brilliantly.
The barrier rippled like the surface of a lake.
Then split apart.
Granting me passage.
Beyond it lay a vast underground cavern.
Unlike the sanctuary, this place wasn’t built by human hands.
Gigantic crystal formations rose from the earth like frozen lightning.
Rivers of silver spiritual energy flowed through the cavern floor.
At its center…
Suspended above an abyss…
Floated an enormous sphere of intertwined chains made entirely of light.
Thousands of glowing runes revolved around it.
Each one flickering.
Each one growing dimmer.
The prison.
The Origin Core immediately reacted.
Primary Seal Located.
Integrity: 58%.
Corruption Penetration: Increasing.
Black cracks spread across several chains.
Dark crimson energy seeped through them like smoke.
Something inside…
Was pushing outward.
A deep voice echoed from within the sphere.
Not loud.
Yet it shook my very soul.
“Another…
Heir…”
I froze.
“You know what I am?”
“I know…
every Heir…”
“…who has failed.”
The words sent a chill through my body.
Failed?
How many had come before me?
The chains trembled violently.
One of them shattered with a deafening crack.
The cavern shook.
Chunks of stone rained from the ceiling.
Seal Integrity: 55%.
Immediate Action Required.
A circular platform slowly rose before me.
At its center stood a pedestal identical to the one in Sanctuary Seventeen.
Except this one was empty.
The Origin Core projected a single instruction.
Insert Legacy Key I.
The symbol on the back of my hand glowed.
Silver light gathered above my palm.
The black ring I had inherited reappeared.
Slowly rotating.
I stepped toward the pedestal.
Then…
The voice laughed again.
“Do you truly believe…”
“…they told you the truth?”
I stopped.
“What do you mean?”
The darkness within the prison swirled.
Shapes began forming inside it.
Faces.
Countless faces.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Cultivators wearing robes unlike any I had seen.
All of them reached toward me.
“We were not imprisoned…”
“…because we were evil.”
My breathing became uneven.
“What?”
“We were imprisoned…”
“…because we refused to kneel.”
The words echoed throughout the cavern.
A seed of doubt formed in my heart.
The Origin Core wanted me to strengthen the seal.
But…
What if the prison had been built by the wrong side?
What if history had been rewritten?
“No…”
I whispered.
“There has to be more.”
The Origin Core remained silent.
For the first time…
It offered no guidance.
No warning.
No command.
Only silence.
The decision…
Was mine alone.
I closed my eyes.
Not to think.
To remember.
I remembered Elder Rowan teaching me that preparation mattered more than courage.
Hunter Milo reminding me that strength meant protecting others.
Grandma Mira showing kindness without expecting anything in return.
If there was one lesson Ashwood had taught me…
It was this:
Never judge someone by their words alone.
Judge them by their actions.
I opened my eyes.
“If you’re innocent…”
“Then why send the Crystal Wolves?”
The cavern fell silent.
The voice didn’t answer.
Instead…
Another chain shattered.
The crimson energy surged violently.
That silence…
Was my answer.
I raised the Legacy Key.
“I don’t know the whole truth.”
“And maybe…”
“The people who built this prison weren’t perfect.”
“But anyone willing to sacrifice innocent lives for freedom…”
“…doesn’t deserve it.”
I pressed the ring into the pedestal.
The moment it touched—
The entire cavern erupted with blinding silver light.
Every ancient rune ignited simultaneously.
The shattered chains began repairing themselves.
The crimson cracks receded.
The imprisoned entity roared in fury.
“HEIR!”
“THIS IS NOT THE END!”
The voice faded beneath the overwhelming brilliance.
One by one…
The chains tightened once more.
The cavern became still.
Emergency Seal Stabilized.
Integrity Restored: 81%.
Synchronization: 35%.
Legacy Trial Complete.
New Directive Unlocked: Seek the Remaining Ninety-Nine Keys.
Before I could catch my breath…
The ground trembled again.
Not from the prison.
From above.
The battle at Ashwood was still raging.
I turned toward the exit.
The seal had held.
But the war…
Was far from over.