CHAPTER 486: HEART BEAT

The gate of the Heart Below loomed before them like a horizon made of night. It wasn’t forged, it was grown, shaped by a force that understood both metal and life, roots of blackened steel intertwining with veins of silver mana that pulsed like arteries.

Each heartbeat of light echoed faintly through the vault, deep and slow, as if it were the breath of something buried far below.

Lindarion stood before it in silence, hand resting lightly on the hilt of his blade. His golden eyes reflected the shifting sigils crawling across the surface of the gate, runes written in a script even the Eleniri had long forgotten.

Ashwing floated down to his shoulder, wings twitching nervously. "I vote we don’t open the door that sounds like it’s alive."

Nysha, standing beside Lindarion, gave the dragon a brief look. "You voted against coming down here too."

"And I was right about that one!" Ashwing hissed, his tail flicking. "Look at this thing, it’s humming like it wants to eat us!"

Lindarion raised his hand, placing his palm against the metal. It was warm to the touch. The sigils flared brighter, spreading outward like ripples on still water.

[System Alert: Resonance field detected.]

[Source: Ancient Demi-Human construct.]

[Status: Locked — requires dual-lineage access.]

Lindarion’s brows furrowed slightly. Dual-lineage. That meant blood, dragon and divine.

His gaze drifted downward to the faint mark on his wrist, where threads of divine mana always shimmered faintly against his skin. Then to Ashwing, whose ember-hued eyes widened as he realized what Lindarion was thinking.

"Oh no," the dragon said flatly. "You’re not using my blood again."

"You regenerate," Lindarion said.

"That’s not the point!"

Nysha crossed her arms. "What exactly are you two—"

She stopped mid-sentence as Lindarion drew his dagger and flicked the blade just once. A single drop of his own golden blood fell onto the gate. The runes flashed.

The hum deepened, shifting into a low, resonant tone that filled the air like a heartbeat amplified a thousandfold. Then Lindarion looked to Ashwing.

The dragon sighed. "I swear, if this opens a portal to the Abyss again—"

But he extended one claw, slicing a small line across it. A droplet of glowing crimson fell beside Lindarion’s. The two drops touched.

And the world moved.

The gate shuddered.

The runes ignited into brilliant white fire, cascading down the metal surface in flowing spirals. The silver veins split open, releasing streams of light that coiled around Lindarion and his companions like living threads.

Then came the voice.

Not sound, but thought. A whisper that bypassed air entirely, sliding directly into their minds.

"The heart remembers.The blood returns.The guardians awaken."

The gate split down the center, its halves folding away into the stone like liquid shadows. Beyond it lay a corridor of pure light, shifting, rippling, and impossibly deep.

Ashwing whispered, "This feels like walking inside someone’s dream."

"It is," Lindarion murmured. "The dream of the last Demi-Human god."

They stepped through.

The passage curved downward, and gravity began to twist. Their steps no longer echoed on stone; instead, each one sent out ripples of color through the light beneath their feet.

Images flickered within those ripples, snatches of a world long gone: scaled warriors with wings of flame, cities suspended in the air, rivers of molten silver flowing between them.

Then, ruin.

The images darkened. Those same cities crumbled into ash. The rivers boiled. A colossal figure, half serpent, half divine flame, devoured the horizon.

Ashwing’s voice was hushed. "That’s... one of them, isn’t it?"

Lindarion nodded slightly. "A progenitor. The first of the Coil. The one they called Veyrath’s Father."

Nysha glanced sharply at him. "That name again. The one from before."

"Yes," Lindarion said quietly. "The serpent we met, he was a remnant of this bloodline. A warden, perhaps even a son. But this—"

He gestured to the image of the devouring god, whose scales shimmered like a thousand suns. "—this is what remains beneath every world touched by their kind."

The corridor opened into a massive chamber.

Unlike the rest of the ruins, this one breathed. The walls moved slightly, expanding and contracting with rhythmic precision. At its center floated a massive crystal heart, suspended in midair, larger than a house, pulsating with light. Every beat sent shockwaves of mana rippling through the air.

[System Notice: Core Signature Identified.]

[Designation: The Heart Below — Demi-Human Origin Core.]

[Status: Dormant. Power Level: Undefined.]

Ashwing stared, speechless for once. Nysha lowered her bow slowly, her expression unreadable. "It’s beautiful," she whispered.

Lindarion didn’t answer. He could feel it, the resonance. The same energy that had thrummed in his veins since his awakening in the World Tree. But here, it was older. Wilder.

He stepped closer.

Each pace sent the crystal pulsing brighter. Its glow matched his heartbeat, its rhythm aligning with his core. And then—

[Warning: Synchronization initiated.]

[Foreign entity attempting partial link.]

The ground trembled. Fractures of light splintered across the walls.

Ashwing shouted, "Lindarion, it’s reacting to you!"

Lindarion gritted his teeth. "I know."

The air grew heavy. The crystal’s color shifted, from silver to crimson, from crimson to gold. Within its depths, something moved.

Not a reflection. A shape.

It looked human, barely, but made of energy, its form constantly fracturing and reforming, bound by invisible chains of light. Its eyes opened, burning like stars through mist.

And when it spoke, the entire chamber seemed to kneel beneath its voice.

"Another bearer of the Flame of Unity. The world’s leash reborn."

Lindarion raised his hand, his voice even despite the pressure. "You are the Heart?"

"No." The entity’s tone was a thousand voices at once, male, female, divine, broken. "I am what remains of it. The last pulse of what your kind destroyed."

Ashwing growled. "Your kind? You mean—"

"The Eleniri. The Dragons. The gods. The betrayers."

The chamber dimmed. The heart’s light turned darker, thicker, like coagulated blood.

Lindarion’s golden eyes narrowed. "You blame the descendants for what their ancestors did."

"I remember balance. They remember only power."

The chains tightened around the figure’s form, sparking violently. "If the Heart awakens, the world will end. It is what it was made for, to return all things to silence."

Lindarion stepped forward. "Then we’ll keep it asleep."

"You can’t," it whispered. "Because the seal is bound to your life. When you rise... it rises."

The words struck harder than any weapon.

Nysha turned sharply to him. "What does it mean—?"

Lindarion didn’t answer. His system pulsed violently again.

[System Alert: Heart Resonance Detected.]

[Warning: Mutual Dependency Established.]

The entity leaned closer, eyes burning through the light.

"You are its key. And its curse."

Then the crystal’s glow erupted into blinding brilliance, and the ground split beneath their feet.

Ashwing’s scream cut through the roar of mana. "LINDARION!"

The chamber collapsed into light, falling, folding, consuming everything.

And in that moment, Lindarion saw a vision: the World Tree above, its roots wrapping around the world, its leaves burning with gold fire... and beneath it, the Heart, awakening in rhythm with his own.

He tried to resist, to separate, but the light swallowed him whole.

The last thing he heard before everything went white was the whisper of the chained being, soft, almost gentle:

"When the Heart beats, the gods remember."