Chapter 103: The Buried Heart
The world was a blur as Fred sprinted through the twisting corridors.
His bare feet slapped against cold, wet stone.
The torches had long since died, leaving only the green glow of the Root's energy pulsing from his skin.
Every step deeper took him further from them — from Mira, from Selene, from everything he once trusted.
But it also drew him closer to something else.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
The air grew thicker.
The walls seemed to pulse, breathing in slow, agonizing rhythms.
---
Fred.
The voice was soft, almost tender.
It came from nowhere — and everywhere.
Fred... come to me.
He stumbled, clutching at the wall.
The voice wasn't like the Root's madness — it was different.
Older.
More knowing.
It beckoned him forward, past collapsed archways and broken statues.
Symbols were carved into the stone — twisting, organic shapes that seemed to squirm under his gaze.
---
Fred stumbled into an enormous cavern.
Above him, the ceiling vanished into darkness.
The floor was a mass of tangled roots, bones, and ancient debris.
At the center stood a monolith — black and veined with emerald light.
It pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
Come.
The voice was stronger now, almost impatient.
Fred felt himself drawn toward the monolith, his feet moving without thought.
Around the base, countless bodies lay half-buried — mummified, twisted into grotesque shapes, their faces frozen in agony.
They had come before him.
They had failed.
Would he?
---
As Fred neared, the monolith split open.
Inside, a heart — massive, ancient, and still beating.
Tendrils of green light lashed out, wrapping around Fred's arms, his legs, his throat.
Visions assaulted him.
He saw cities burning.
Empires crumbling.
A boy — himself — standing at the center, untouched, unbroken, unknowable.
You are mine now, the voice crooned.
Embrace your true nature. Or be nothing.
Fred's hands shook.
Was this the Root's final gift?
Or his own damnation?
---
Fred took a breath — and plunged his hand into the heart.
Pain seared up his arm, white-hot and unbearable.
His body convulsed.
The cavern roared around him.
The monolith cracked, split, and collapsed.
Energy flooded into Fred, rewriting his flesh, his blood, his very soul.
He screamed — a sound that shook the buried world to its foundations.
When he opened his eyes, the cavern was gone.
The bodies were gone.
Only Fred remained — reborn.
Changed.
And utterly alone.
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