The Obsidian Heart pulsed like a second sun in reverse draining light instead of radiating it. The air thickened with pressure, and a buzzing silence filled the sanctum, broken only by the cold whispers of awakening.
The cloaked figure stepped forward, its feet never touching the ground. From its body, strands of abyssal flame licked upward like serpents. Its face was half-shrouded by a cracked mask etched with runes Ethan couldn't understand.
You broke the seal,
It said. Now suffer the curse.
Lady Seraphina narrowed her eyes,
That's not just a warden.
It's a harbinger.
Elder Selene moved swiftly, launching a Moon Ripple Blade toward the figure. The curved beam struck it squarely in the chest and dissipated into smoke.
I felt nothing,
She whispered.
Because you do not matter,
the warden growled.
A wave of corrupted Qi erupted from it, slamming the entire party against the walls of the sanctum. Elena skidded across the ground, blood at the corner of her lips. Elder Lysithea's arm cracked audibly, but she stood again, using her other hand to summon a protective array of moonlight barriers.
Ethan struggled to his feet,
The Dragon Slayer Sword quivered, vibrating violently in his grip.
It wants to awaken something buried deep in here.
Ethan muttered,
We have to destroy the Obsidian Heart before it completes the call.
The warden raised both arms, and a black ritual circle formed beneath the floating heart. Glyphs ignited some ancient, some twisted beyond recognition. The sanctum trembled.
We don't have time!
Juno shouted, throwing a chain of talismans that slowed the glyphs for only a moment.
Ethan turned to Seraphina,
Can you and the elders hold it off? Just long enough for me to get close?
The Moon Goddess nodded,
We'll buy you time. But beware the closer you get, the more it'll see inside you.
Seraphina and the elders flared with Golden Core brilliance, casting a coordinated lunar array. Twin moons formed in the air and began to pull at the abyssal flames like gravitational forces.
Elena joined Ethan,
You're not going alone this time.
Together, they dashed toward the altar.
Every step felt like dragging their souls through tar. Ethan's vision blurred, the aura of the Obsidian Heart trying to pull his thoughts into madness.
Suddenly, the Dragon Slayer Sword let out a cry a long, humming resonance. Blue runes along the blade's spine ignited, and a new engraving formed on the guard:
Mark of Icefire Dragon.
Ethan felt it. A second form awakening fueled by the fusion of frost techniques and abyss-forged pressure.
Now!
Elena screamed, charging like a lightning-infused slash.
Ethan leapt forward, sword gleaming. He pierced the outer ring of the ritual circle and landed directly beneath the Heart. He struck once, twice each time the blade cracked through the glyphs.
The warden roared and charged toward them, but the Moonlight Array pulsed brighter Seraphina holding it back at the cost of her spiritual essence.
Ethan gathered everything his Foundation Phase peak Qi, his soul essence, the mark of the Icefire Dragon and stabbed directly into the core of the Heart.
A blinding explosion followed.
The ritual shattered.
The warden screamed its mask breaking, revealing a hollow void inside.
Then,
Silence.
The Obsidian Heart fractured into stardust. The floor of the sanctum began to collapse. Cracks tore through the chamber like veins of light.
Time to run!
Juno yelled.
They all fled up the spiral steps just as the entire sanctum caved in, swallowing the Obsidian prison forever hopefully.
Outside, under the starlit sky, they collapsed one by one, breathless, but alive.
Seraphina looked at Ethan, her voice weak but proud,
You're not just walking your path,
You're carving it into fate.