Chapter 33: The Heart of the Maze
Stepping out of the narrow conduit passage felt like walking from a stuffy basement into the middle of a power plant's main generator room, but way prettier and probably more likely to zap you into dust.
The Central Core chamber was huge, easily the size of a football field, and filled with a soft, pulsing white light that pushed back the shadows.
The air thrummed with incredible energy, clean and powerful, making Daniel's teeth buzz slightly.
It felt ancient and immensely strong, completely different from the corrupted blue energy leaking through the rest of the labyrinth.
In the very center of the vast chamber floated the Core itself. It wasn't a machine, not exactly.
It looked like a giant, perfectly smooth sphere of pure white light, maybe ten meters across. It spun slowly, humming deeply, radiating warmth and that intense energy.
Lines of the same white energy flowed out from it, connecting to glowing crystal nodes embedded high up on the chamber walls, like veins feeding the entire labyrinth structure.
This was clearly the heart of the whole place, the power source the previous explorer was looking for.
Daniel took a slow breath, his eyes wide. This place felt... important. Powerful. Maybe even a little bit holy, in a weird, alien technology kind of way.
Nyx poked her head out of his pouch again, her blue eyes blinking rapidly in the bright light.
She didn't seem scared here; instead, she tilted her head, letting out a soft, curious whine, as if the pure energy felt somehow familiar or interesting to her latent Soulfire nature.