Chapter 48: The echo gate
The boys had barely left the ruins when the ground trembled beneath their feet—just once, like a deep breath from something slumbering beneath the earth. Cain paused mid-step, looking back.
Selene caught his arm. "Did you feel that?"
Leo was already scanning the area with his tablet, frowning. "That wasn't a quake. It was a pulse. Magical. Very old."
Eren, still bandaged from the last fight, let out a groan. "Can we not walk into another death trap for once?"
Cain said nothing. He stepped back toward the center of the ruined temple. The ashes from the demon had scattered, but now... they were drawing together, swirling like dust in a tornado. A faint glow flickered from the cracked stone beneath them.
"It's not done," Cain whispered.
Then the stone split open.
Not violently. Like it had been waiting—like it recognized them.
A spiral staircase revealed itself, leading into an abyss. The air that rose from it was warm, humming, filled with voices that didn't speak in words but in emotion—grief, hope, rage, and something deeply familiar.
Leo looked to his brothers. "Should we go down?"
"No," Cain said, eyes sharp. "We have to."