Sirius invoked what little remained of his shadow control, feeling mana respond sluggishly after all the combat they'd survived. Wrapped the black egg in darkness and hid it in the small dimensional space he'd learned to create years ago.

'The potions can be divided between us, five and five without problem. If I leave them here with Lykea's barrier protecting them, Luna could come when she's older. Use them politically for her benefit or for herself when she's better positioned in our family rank.'

The thought of Luna brought fresh pain. His daughter waiting above, unaware her mother had been transformed into crystal. Unaware that her father had failed to save the woman who'd loved them both with so much embarrassing intensity.

He kept thinking about it while walking in circles around the sealed door, his mind working through problems that had no obvious solutions.

How to obtain the other two cores?

In which ruins would they be located?

What secret did this door guard that required three different keys to open?

Was there really any way to recover Lykea or was the heart everything that remained of her?

Questions spun in his exhausted mind without finding answers, circular thoughts that led nowhere but couldn't be stopped.

Eventually exhaustion won where reason couldn't, physical limits overriding mental determination.

He collapsed beside the pedestal where the white heart rested, feeling embraced by the warm light emanating from the crystal that contained everything remaining of the woman he loved.

His last conscious image was of a soft light glowing steadily, a heartbeat, a rhythm that might have been imaginary but felt real enough to provide comfort as his consciousness slipped away…

Hours later a violent tremor yanked him from unconsciousness, its intensity suggested something catastrophic occurring.

The floor shook beneath him with strength sufficient to make dust fall from the ancient ceiling that hadn't moved in centuries. Something had changed above in the surface world, something massive enough to be felt even in these sealed depths.

Sirius stood up looking toward the stairs ascending to the surface, toward whatever had just occurred while he'd been seeking answers in the depths.

Dread filled his chest as he recognized the tremor's pattern, the specific way when beasts moved in massive numbers that made earth shake with their passage.

Orion came running into the chamber with a face showing fear that looked genuine rather than performed, an expression suggesting whatever was happening above transcended their personal conflict.

"We have problems!" he shouted desperately, words tumbling out with urgency that demanded immediate response. "Corrupted beasts are invading us!"

♢♢♢♢

ORION AWAKENS

Pain was the first thing Orion felt upon regaining consciousness, a sensation cutting through the fog of unconsciousness with sharp insistence.

Sharp pain in the arm that had been left at a strange angle during the explosion, bones grinding against each other in ways they weren't designed for.

Stabbing pain in ribs where several superficial cuts healed slowly, flesh knitting back together at Gold-rank speed but not fast enough to prevent discomfort. A pulsing headache suggested he'd hit the wall with more force than his body could comfortably withstand, and his brain bruised inside a skull that had protected it from worse damage.

He sat up with effort, groaning while each muscle protested the movements with burning complaints.

The ninth chamber was empty except for him and the evidence of a battle that had nearly killed them. The faded remains of fused spirits left no trace of their existence.

And Sirius wasn't there, the absence somehow more significant than his presence would have been.

Orion looked toward the stairs descending to the tenth chamber with his expression darkening as understanding arrived. His brother had gone down without him, had left him unconscious on the floor like discarded garbage whose usefulness had expired.

He checked his surroundings with abrupt movements that ignored the pain again because fury was a better analgesic than any potion. Lyzea's black heart wasn't there, the crystal that should have been in his possession taken while he'd been unable to defend what was rightfully his.

Sirius had taken it too, along with whatever treasures waited in the tenth chamber.

'The bastard is keeping everything for himself.'

Fury boiled in his chest while standing up with a stagger that spoke of injuries not yet healed.

Of course…

Of course Sirius would take advantage of the moment he was vulnerable to steal what belonged to him by right. His wife's powerful heart. The tenth chamber's prizes. Everything that was best and most valuable.

His brother wasn't different from him after all, just better at pretending moral superiority. Just more practiced at wearing masks that made selfishness look like nobility.

Orion leaned against the wall, breathing with difficulty while evaluating his options that all felt bad in different ways. He could go down and attempt to reclaim what was his through a confrontation that would probably end badly given his current state. But he was injured, without manifested beasts yet, without the black heart to defend himself if Sirius decided to attack and remove him from the game directly.

Or he could...

His hand slid toward his tunic's most hidden pocket, the one he'd protected carefully during the entire descent with paranoid attention that suddenly made sense. His fingers found the spherical form and extracted it with reverent care.

A purple sphere the size of his fist, glowing with light that seemed sick and corrupt as if the energy inside was rotten from the core.

A corruption summoning core from Yino's new secret technology.

The Goldcrest house leader along with Ravenspire had given it to him personally weeks ago with a ceremony that had seemed excessive at the time but made perfect sense now.

"For when you descend," he'd said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, an expression suggesting knowledge of plans within plans. "Insurance."

The plan had been simple in concept, perfect in its timed execution that required coordination across multiple groups.

His twin brothers Dorian and Magnus should have already finished evacuating most of the expedition forces from his brother's Starweaver zone under various excuses about defending outer walls against routine threats.

The large wave this core would invoke was programmed to synchronize perfectly with the moment when the wave that came every four years appeared naturally, when all major families would be occupied with their own walls, their own affairs and incapable of responding quickly to crises elsewhere.

It was the perfect moment to ruin Sirius's name, to destroy his reputation as the great hero protector of the family. If a massive wave of corrupted beasts attacked the center of his territory exactly when he and his army were dispersed, when he'd ignored duties by pursuing personal glory in the ruins instead of protecting civilians under his care...

Nobody would forgive that. Almost none of his soldiers would understand or accept that abandoning post had been for good reason rather than selfish ambition.

Especially not after all the civilian casualties that would inevitably result from his absence, deaths that could have been prevented if he'd been where duty demanded rather than where personal need had driven him.

It made sense now why no reinforcements had arrived during the entire descent into the chambers. Dorian and Magnus had effectively dealt with the two soldiers who'd tried leaving the ruins to get reinforcements that could descend to help.

Probably the exhausted soldiers hadn't even defended themselves properly when hearing convincing excuses from the twins, explanations that sounded reasonable until examined too closely.

The twins were good at that if nothing else, those mischievous bastards. Good at making terrible things sound perfectly logical.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.