Ethan moved deeper into the heart of the ruins, his armored boots treading silently over smooth, polished stone. His HUD remained riddled with flickering static, the interference growing more frequent with every step he took. Iris had long since fallen silent, her e drowned by the strange energies radiating from the ruins.

  The air here felt dehick with a pressure Ethan couldn't expin. Every breath he drew seemed heavier, as though the very walls of the a structure were alive, watg him. The faint hum that had been his stant panion siering had grown louder, resonating deep in his bones. It wasn't aernal sound, it was something that vibrated within him.

  The corridor stretched endlessly ahead, its walls lined with strags. Symbols glowed softly, faint green light spilling out of intricate carvings that twisted in impossible patterhan traced his gloved fingers along the surface of the stone as he walked. It was smooth and cold to the touch, yet he felt an inexplicable warmth radiating from the symbols, like a heartbeat against his skin.

  His helmet recorded every detail, but none of it made sehe patterns shifted as though alive, rearranging themselves subtly when he wasn't looking. He'd gnce back, only to find them different. Impossible, he thought. A was happening.

  "Still nothing from you, Iris?" he muttered, though he khe AI wouldn't answer.

  The silence pressive. No wind, no sound of life, only the hum, the soft glow, and the echo of his footsteps.

  The further he vehe grahe architecture became. The corridors opened into vast chambers, their ceilings s so high that even his helmet's enhanced optics couldn't see their edges. Massive ns, carved with the same glowing symbols, rose like a sentinels, holding up the weight of fotteuries.

  The stoh him seemed to drink in light. It reflected none of it, as though it beloo another world entirely. In the dimness, shadows pooled in ers that should, stretg strangely along the walls as Ethan moved. He stopped for a moment, watg his own shadow lengthen unnaturally, reag out toward the far walls like gnarled fingers.

  The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He sed the area, his breathing steady but his muscles coiled, ready for a. Nothing moved, yet the sensation of being watched intensified.

  "It's like the pce has eyes," he whispered to himself.

  As Ethan moved into another chamber, a sudden wave of dizziness struck him. He staggered, reag for the wall to steady himself. The symbols beh his palm fred brighter, their glow pulsating with his owbeat. His vision blurred, the edges of the room ing as though reality itself was bending.

  And then it hit him, sensations not his own.

  Whispers. Faint and fleeting, they slid through his sciousness like a breeze through tall grass. Words he couldn't uand, voices yered on top of one another, muttering in a nguage both alien and agly familiar.

  Images fshed across his mind: a t figure cloaked in golden light, its hands raised as an unseen force rippled out in waves. A city of impossible spires, glowing under a crimson sky. Crowds of people with eyes that shone like stars, their minds linked as one.

  Ethan gasped and tore his hand away from the wall. The visions faded, but the hum in his skull persisted. He stood there, trembling slightly, his breath ing in sharp bursts.

  "What… was that?" His voice echoed back at him, unanswered.

  Slowly, he straightened. His vision was sharper now, the edges of his surroundings more defihan before. The world around him seemed to move in slow motion, every detail suddenly clear. He turned his head, and the faint swirl of dust particles hanging in the air caught his eye as though frozen in pce.

  His reflexes had heightened once again, he could feel it in his body. The strange energy in this pce wasn't harming him; it was resonating with him. It felt familiar, as though it had been waiting for him to arrive.

  The corridor was even stranger. It widened into an expansive hall, the floor sloping downward in a spiral. Every wall was covered in carvings that danced with energy. Ethan walked cautiously, the hum intensifying, the symbols bzing brighter the closer he got to the ter.

  Wheouched the doorframe, another wave of visions struck him.

  This time, he saw a civilization, vast and powerful. The people of this pce moved with a grad purpose beyond prehension, their minds ected by an invisible thread. They created wonders, teology that blurred the liween mae and thought, tools crafted with raw willpower.

  But there was darkness, too.

  In a rapid flurry of images, Ethan saw the spires crumble under waves of destru. The sky burhe ected minds screamed as one, shattered by an unseen force. Figures fled into the deserts, their psychic powers dimmed, their cities falling into ruin. The final image seared itself into his brain: a bde of glowing silver, held high by a lone figure standing amidst the chaos.

  Ethan staggered back, his heart pounding. The ruins weren't just a, they were a tomb. A moo something that had once been magnifit and was now lost. The weight of it pressed down on him, filling him with awe and dread.

  He turned his gaze forward, deeper into the corridor. Whatever had happeo this civilization, their legacy still lingered here. Waiting.

  Finally, Ethan reached it.

  The passage ended abruptly, opening into a chamber unlike anything he had seen so far. It was immense, circur and cavernous, its ceiling lost in shadow. At the ter of the room, a raised ptform stood bathed in emerald light. From his position at the entrahan could see the source of the glow.

  The dagger.

  It hovered an inch above a pedestal of bck stone, held aloft by an invisible force. The bde itself was breathtaking. Carved with the same intricate symbols that covered the ruins, it shimmered with an otherworldly radiance, as though alive. Its edge was fwless, sharp enough to cut the air itself, while the hilt, smooth and flowing, seemed almost sculpted to fit the hand of its wielder.

  Ethan approached slowly, his eyes fixed on the on. The pulsing light reflected off his helmet, casting shifting patterns across his armor. Each step he took felt heavier tha, as though unseen forces were testing his resolve.

  The hum was deafening now. It filled his mind, vibrating through his very core. A, it didn't feel hostile. It was a summons, a challenge.

  Ethan stopped at the base of the ptform, staring up at the dagger. He could feel its power from here, radiating like heat. The symbols etched into its surface glowed in time with his heartbeat, as though the bde reized him.

  He exhaled slowly. "What are you…?" he whispered.

  For a moment, he simply stood there, the weight of the chamber pressing down on him. The walls seemed to close in, their symbols bzing brighter as though urging him to act.

  Ethan pced his foot on the first step leading to the pedestal. As he asded, the light fred, filling the chamber with a brilliahat chased away every shadow. The hum reached its cresdo, reverberating in the depths of his mind.

  Finally, he stood before the pedestal.

  The dagger hovered silently, waiting.

  Ethan reached out his hand, hesitating only for a moment. The air around the bde buzzed with energy, the light sht now that it almost hurt to look at. He lowered his hand slightly, feeling the charge crackle across his fiips.

  And then he paused.

  Something told him this wasn't over yet. Whatever this dagger was, it wasn't going to let him take it so easily.

  He pulled his hand back, his jaw set with determination. "Let's see what you're hiding," he murmured.

  The glow intensified once more as if in response, and the hum beh his skin quieted, repced by an eerie silence.

  Ethan stood there, staring at the on that pulsed like a beati, ready for whatever was to e.