For several long moments...
Neither of us moved.
The guardian remained where it had knelt, its head bowed in eternal silence. No longer a creature.
A monument.
A promise kept.
The emerald glow had vanished from its eyes, leaving behind nothing but weathered stone scarred by countless centuries. Moss already crept through the cracks in its body as though time itself had rushed forward the moment its duty had ended.
The mountain had reclaimed its guardian.
Only one thing remained untouched.
The crystal.
It rested amongst the broken obsidian, no larger than my hand, its emerald surface impossibly smooth despite the violence that had shattered everything around it. Unlike the larger crystal that had powered the guardian, this one glowed softly.
Patiently.
Waiting.
I found myself walking toward it before I consciously decided to.
Behind me, I heard Raiden's boots scrape softly against the stone.
He didn't stop me.
He simply followed.
The closer I came, the more familiar the feeling became.
Warmth spread through my chest.
Not heat.
Recognition.
Just like...
The other Relics.
My breath caught.
"No..."
I whispered.
I knelt carefully beside the emerald shard.
It wasn't just glowing.
It was humming.
A quiet vibration that seemed to resonate beneath my fingertips before I'd even touched it.
Raiden stopped beside me.
"You know what it is."
It wasn't a question.
I nodded slowly.
"I think..."
My fingers hovered over the crystal.
"...I've felt something like this before."
The memory returned instantly.
Hot flames.
Flowing water.
The gods voices.
I closed my eyes.
Then wrapped my fingers gently around the emerald shard.
The moment my skin touched it...
The mountain inhaled.
Emerald light rushed through the crystal, climbing my arm in delicate ribbons before disappearing beneath my skin.
It didn't hurt.
If anything...
it felt incomplete.
Like hearing only the first note of a song.
I frowned.
"That's..."
Strange.
There was no overwhelming surge of power.
No absorption of the relic itself.
No flood of memories.
No ancient god greeting me.
Only silence.
I looked down at the shard resting in my palm.
"Well that's different."
Raiden folded his arms.
"As opposed to the other Relics?"
"The Water Relic..." I said quietly, still staring at the crystal. "spoke to me almost immediately. The fire relic let out an intense hum like a calling."
I waited.
Nothing.
No voice.
No presence.
Just the steady pulse of green light beneath my fingertips.
I slowly shook my head.
"This isn't the Earth Relic."
Raiden's eyes narrowed.
"No?"
I turned the crystal over in my hand.
"No."
My thumb brushed across one jagged edge.
"It's..."
The realization settled over me piece by piece.
"...only part of it."
His gaze flicked toward the kneeling guardian.
"So we destroyed its doorman."
"...and what found a key."
Exactly.
Not the prize.
The invitation.
A low rumble rolled through the cavern.
Both of us looked up instantly.
The emerald shard grew warmer in my hand.
The veins running through the floor began glowing once more, spreading away from us like rivers of light.
The guardian didn't move.
The statue remained perfectly still.
Its purpose had ended.
Now...
the mountain had another.
The rumbling grew louder.
Stone scraped against stone somewhere deep within the chamber.
Raiden instinctively stepped in front of me.
I almost smiled.
"You know," I said softly.
"I can protect myself."
"I'm aware."
His eyes never left the wall ahead.
"I've simply developed a bad habit."
The corner of my mouth lifted.
A habit.
The mountain answered before I could.
A section of the cavern wall began to move.
Not the great door behind us.
A completely different wall.
Ancient seams I hadn't even noticed split apart as dust poured from them in thick clouds.
The sound echoed endlessly through the chamber.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Like something that hadn't moved in thousands of years was waking.
The opening widened.
A corridor stretched beyond it.
Dark.
Cold.
Familiar.
Iron bars.
Stone cells.
Rusted chains hanging from cracked walls.
Broken lanterns.
My heart skipped.
"No..."
Raiden frowned.
"What?"
I didn't answer.
I couldn't.
Because I knew this place.
Not from stories.
From experience.
The Earth Prison.
The same prison that had nearly become our grave.
The same prison where our story had started again...
Only now...
it looked different.
Older.
Quieter.
Almost...
Expected.
Raiden stepped beside me.
Confusion pulled at his expression.
"I don't understand."
Neither did I.
At least...
not at first.
Then my gaze dropped to the emerald shard resting in my hand.
The warmth.
The silent guardian.
The incomplete relic.
The prison.
The pieces slid together so suddenly that I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I couldn't believe we'd missed it.
Raiden looked at me.
"What?"
I met his eyes.
"The prison."
He frowned harder.
"What about it?"
I smiled despite the knot forming in my stomach.
"It likes to play games."
Recognition flickered across his face.
"Our first time there..."
"...every corridor was a choice," I finished.
"Every room was a test."
He looked back toward the newly opened passage.
Then at the shard in my hand.
Then at the silent guardian.
Realization slowly replaced confusion.
"This..."
He exhaled quietly.
"...was never about getting the relic from the troll."
I shook my head.
"No."
Looking into the darkness beyond the opening, I tightened my grip around the emerald shard.
"It was only the first level."
As if the mountain had been waiting for those words...
A deep metallic clang echoed from somewhere within the prison.
One prison door slammed shut.
Then another.
Then another.
The sound rolled through the darkness like a welcome.
Or a warning.
I couldn't tell which.
Beside me, Raiden rested one hand on the hilt of his sword.
For the first time since we'd entered the mountain...
Neither of us stepped forward.
Because we both understood exactly what waited beyond those doors.
The games...
Had only just begun.