Chapter 63: The Hidden Chamber
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Dabi stood in the darkened chamber, contemplating his next move. The pedestal where he had found the key still hummed with energy, though it seemed the key had been the room's most significant treasure. Or so he thought.
As Dabi's sharp gaze swept the room, he noticed something odd—a faint line along the wall, as though it had been meant to blend in but failed under closer inspection. His Insight skill kicked in, alerting him to a hidden mechanism.
"There's more to this place than meets the eye," Dabi muttered, his interest piqued.
He approached the wall, tracing his fingers over the faint line. After a moment of searching, he found a small groove that looked like it could be pushed. With a slight press, the wall shifted, grinding open to reveal a hidden passage leading further underground.
The air was colder here, thick with untapped mana. Dabi tightened his grip on his sword, cautious but curious as he made his way down the narrow stairway into what seemed like another secret chamber beneath the ruins.
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The Crystal Chamber
At the bottom of the stairs, the passage opened up into a vast, dimly lit room. In the center of the chamber was a large, ornate crystal embedded in the ground. It glowed faintly, casting eerie shadows on the walls, and at its heart was a keyhole—one that seemed to match the key Dabi had just acquired.
Dabi felt a surge of anticipation. Whatever this key was for, it was more important than he had realized.
He approached the crystal cautiously, pulling out the obsidian key. As he drew closer, the crystal began to hum softly, reacting to the key's presence.
"Only one way to find out what this does," Dabi muttered.
He inserted the key into the crystal's heart, feeling it click into place with an almost too-perfect precision. The key began to turn on its own, and as it did, the entire chamber seemed to vibrate with raw energy.
Suddenly, the crystal dissolved into a stream of pure mana, swirling around Dabi like a cyclone before disappearing into thin air. Where the crystal once stood, a figure began to emerge—ghostly at first, then solidifying before Dabi's eyes.
It was a woman, her form tall and regal, though her body looked frail and almost skeletal. Her skin was pale, her eyes sunken but glowing faintly with mana, and her long, flowing hair draped over her slender form like a cascade of shadows.
Dabi's eyes widened as recognition hit him. She resembled one of the figures he had briefly seen in the Memory Stone, someone from the Dimension Caretakers' lost history. She had been standing among the last defenders of the ruins, though her fate had been unclear in the memory.
"You..." Dabi whispered, his voice almost lost in the vastness of the chamber.
The woman's hollow eyes seemed to meet his, though they were distant, as if she was seeing something—or someone—far away in time. Her lips parted slightly, but no sound came out.
Who is she? Dabi thought. Why does she feel so familiar?
The figure didn't speak or move, only standing there, frozen in time like a living relic of the past. Dabi's mind raced with questions, but before he could act, the faint energy around her began to flicker, as if she might disappear at any moment.
He stepped closer, but stopped short, unsure of what would happen next. His instincts screamed at him that this figure held immense importance, but the mystery of
her existence left him on edge.
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