Auron didn't speak for hours after the ritual.
He returned to the pit in silence. Mira tried to follow, but he said nothing. Jace approached him once, but one glance from Auron stopped him cold.
Something had changed.
Not just in the way he looked—but in the way the stone reacted around him. The ground felt quieter when he walked, like it was listening. Shadows leaned closer to him, as if drawn to his breath.
He no longer looked like a slave.
Not even like a man.
He looked like something born from the dark.
And still... alive.
---
The Judge watched from the upper tower.
No emotion showed on his face. He stood perfectly still, scroll floating beside him, pages twitching faintly as if in discomfort.
He turned to his soldiers. "He should have broken."
"Shall we attempt a second purification?" one asked.
The Judge didn't answer at first.
Then, softly, "No. Not yet."
He turned away from the window.
"There is something old in him. Something watching. If we press too soon, we might awaken it."
He placed a hand on the scroll.
It fluttered violently, then froze.
"The verdict will wait."
---
Auron sat at the edge of the old forge, staring into the embers of a dead fire.
The mask lay beside him.
Its surface had fully turned to a dark steel gray, laced with faint, glowing cracks like veins under the skin. It no longer whispered. It no longer moved.
But it pulsed.
With every heartbeat, it answered.
A rhythm that matched his own.
The system activated without a command.
\[Whispering Mask – Sync Level: 26%]
\[Ability Unlocked: *Shadow Latch* – Bind enemy movement with Abyssal thread]
\[New Trait Detected – Core Adaptation Achieved]
\[Warning: Corruption Level – 41%]
Auron stared at the numbers.
He was changing faster than before. Every touch with the Abyss opened a new door.
Every time he walked through one, something shut behind him.
He looked up.
Jace stood across the room.
"I thought you were dead," Jace said.
"You weren't wrong."
Auron stood slowly.
Jace stepped back. "You don't… look the same."
"I'm not."
Jace struggled for words. "You passed the Judge's test. No one ever has."
Auron picked up the mask.
"Because I didn't let it be a test."
"Then what was it?"
"A message."
"To who?"
"To the thing watching from the other side."
---
That night, Mira called a meeting in the lower war hall.
Only Auron and Jace were invited.
And the boy.
He sat quietly in the corner, still weak, but breathing easier. The darkness in his veins had faded. But his eyes held a look Auron recognized—he had seen too much too fast.
Just like him.
Mira wasted no time.
"They're not going to wait," she said. "The Judge wants to observe you longer, but his patience has limits."
"How long?" Auron asked.
"Three days. Then they'll purge the mine. With or without proof."
Auron nodded.
"Then we find it."
"Find what?" Jace asked.
"The source," Mira answered. "The infection that started it all."
Auron stepped closer to the table.
"There's one place we haven't looked."
Jace paled. "No. You mean the Shaft Below?"
Mira nodded. "It was sealed two decades ago. No one who went in came back out."
Auron looked at the map.
"I'll go alone."
"No," Mira said. "I'm going with you."
"You don't trust me."
"I trust that if you fall, someone needs to bring word back."
Auron glanced at Jace.
"You stay with the boy."
Jace nodded slowly. "And if you don't return?"
Auron placed the mask over his face.
It locked into place like it belonged.
"Then don't open the seal again."
---
An hour later, they stood at the edge of the sealed tunnel.
Mira carried two vials of nullroot, a short sword across her back, and a flame crystal for light.
Auron carried only the mask.
And the thing inside it.
Together, they stepped beyond the broken stone.
And descended into the Shaft Below.
Neither spoke.
Neither looked back.
But something beneath them had already woken.
And it was waiting for its children to come home.