This cavern wasn't the source. It was just the beginning.

"We're going deeper," Jack announced, making the decision. He turned to the surviving miners. "How many levels are there? How far down does this mine go?"

The miners exchanged nervous glances. Finally, one of them spoke up. "Three levels, Soul Warden. We're on the first. The second level has richer deposits, more concentrated Aethrium. But the third level..."

"What about it?"

"No one goes to the third level. Pho forbids it. Says it's too dangerous, that the air down there will kill demons who breathe it too long."

Jack's instincts screamed that this was important. "But there is a third level?"

"Yes. We've seen the entrance. But it's sealed. Pho put barriers on it, magical wards that activate if anyone tries to pass through."

"Show me," Jack commanded.

The miner who'd been speaking, apparently elected spokesperson by virtue of being brave enough to talk, nodded and began walking toward one of the tunnels branching off the main cavern.

Jack followed, Kyren falling into step beside him like a silent shadow.

They walked for a whole day, descending through tunnels carved from solid stone and reinforced with wooden supports.

The Aethrium crystals grew denser as they went deeper, their blue light bright enough that Jack didn't need any other light.

Eventually they reached a massive door set into the cavern wall.

It was made of some dark metal Jack didn't recognize, easily five meters tall and three meters wide. Glowing runes covered its surface, pulsing with energy that made Jack's skin prickle even from a distance.

These were serious wards, the kind designed to kill anyone who tried to force their way through.

"This is it," the miner said, stopping well back from the door. "The entrance to the third level. No one's been past here in years."

Jack studied the door, his mind working through possibilities. He could probably break through the wards eventually, between his lightning magic and the system's abilities.

But it would take time, and there was no guarantee Pho wouldn't show up while Jack was working on it.

'No,' Jack decided.

He spent the next two days exploring every tunnel, every cavern, every corner of the mine.

The operation was vast. Dozens of shafts leading to Aethrium deposits. Storage rooms filled with harvested crystals. Living quarters for the miners.

Pho had built an entire underground city dedicated to extracting and processing Aethrium.

On the second day, he found a tunnel that branched away from the main mining operation.

It was smaller than the others, barely wide enough for two demons to walk side by side, and it descended at a sharp angle that made Jack's ears pop from the pressure change.

"My lord," Kyren said, his hollow voice carrying a note of caution. "The air is changing. Something ahead is affecting the environment."

Jack felt it too. A warmth that grew more intense with each step. Not the heat of fire or lava, but something else. Something that made his blood feel like it was vibrating in his veins.

They descended for what felt like hours, the tunnel twisting and turning, always going down. The Aethrium crystals here were massive, some as thick as Jack's torso, and their blue light had taken on an almost white intensity that hurt to look at directly.

Finally, the tunnel opened into a cavern so vast that Jack couldn't see the far walls.

And at the bottom, fifty meters below where Jack stood, was a body.

It was enormous. Easily a hundred meters long from head to toe, lying on its back as if sleeping.

The proportions were humanoid, two arms, two legs, a torso and head, but the scale was incomprehensible. One of its hands was larger than Jack's estate.

The skin was gray, almost stone-like, and covered in what looked like crystalline growths. Blue Aethrium crystals, thousands of them, growing from the giant's flesh like a parasite feeding on its host.

And even from this distance, even across fifty meters of empty air, Jack could feel it.

The power flooded the room.

[DING!]

[Anomaly Detected: Dying Titan]

[Warning: Prolonged exposure may trigger resonance]

Jack stared at the notification, then at the massive body below, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.

A titan. Lying beneath a demon-controlled mine, its dying body feeding the growth of magical crystals that had sparked a four-year war.

"What..." Jack's voice came out as barely a whisper. "What the hell is that?"

Then the pain hit.

It started in his chest, a sudden pressure that made Jack gasp.

His heart hammered against his ribs, each beat stronger than the last, as if something inside him was trying to break free.

The warmth he'd felt in the tunnel intensified, spreading through his veins like molten lava.

Not burning. Not quite. But close enough that Jack's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles going white as he fought against the sensation.

The cavern seemed to pulse around him.

The Aethrium crystals' light brightened and dimmed in a rhythm that matched his accelerating heartbeat. The air grew thick, oppressive, as if the weight of centuries was pressing down on his shoulders.

Jack took a step back from the edge, trying to distance himself from whatever was affecting him. But the sensation didn't fade. If anything, it grew stronger.

'What is this?' Jack thought, his breathing becoming labored. 'What's happening to me?'

He could feel something. But it wasn't pain.

As if some part of him that had been dormant was suddenly waking up, responding to some presence.

The titan's chest rose and fell with breaths so slow Jack had initially mistaken them for stillness. Each inhalation took nearly a minute, the massive ribcage expanding just slightly before contracting again.

And with each breath, Jack felt that pressure in his own chest intensify.

It was alive. Barely, but alive.

And somehow, impossibly, Jack felt like it knew he was there.

Not in any concrete way. There were no words, no direct communication.

Just a sense of awareness, of ancient eyes that couldn't open but still saw, of a consciousness so vast and old that Jack's mind couldn't fully comprehend it.

The titan wanted something.

Wanted to... what? Speak? Warn him?

Jack couldn't tell. The impression was too vague, too distant, like trying to hear a whisper from miles away.

Jack stumbled backward, his legs unsteady. His vision swam, the blue Aethrium light seeming to blur and split. The warmth in his veins had become uncomfortable now, almost feverish.

He turned away from the edge, needing to break whatever connection was forming between him and the dying titan.

His eyes swept the cavern entrance, searching for something, anything, to anchor himself to.

That's when he saw it.

Floating above the tunnel entrance, barely visible against the blue crystal light, was a small silver sphere.

No larger than his fist, perfectly round, and emanating a soft silver glow that was distinct from the Aethrium.

He'd seen something like this before.

Draven's memory orb. The first one he'd collected back in the Luminous Labyrinth.

[DING!]

[Unique Item Detected: Draven's Memory Orb]

[Collect Memory Orb?]

[YES] or [NO]

Jack's hand moved on instinct, reaching toward the floating sphere even as his body continued to protest the titan's proximity.

His fingers closed around the orb and it dissolved into silver light that flowed into his palm like water.

[Memory Orb Collected: 2/7]

The moment the orb's light entered his body, everything became worse.

The pressure in Jack's chest doubled. The warmth in his veins turned to ice, then back to fire.

His vision darkened at the edges, and he could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears like war drums.

The titan's presence pressed against his consciousness, and beneath it, he could feel the new memory orb's power trying to integrate with his system.

Two massive forces pulling at his awareness simultaneously, each one demanding attention he couldn't give.

Jack's knees buckled.

"My lord?" Kyren's hollow voice cut through the chaos in Jack's head. "Are you well?"

Jack tried to respond, tried to say something, but his tongue felt thick and useless.

The cavern spun around him, blue crystals and silver light blending into a nauseating swirl of color.

The last thing Jack saw before darkness claimed him was Kyren's burnt face, those hollow eyes showing something that might have been concern.

Then everything went black.

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