"Somewhere different," Victor murmured while examining the dead-end chamber. "Not like what Selphira described for the end chamber."

This was a terminal point… A final destination.

There was nothing beyond this chamber because there was no door leading anywhere else.

It was simply a final repository. A place where sacrifices without hearts could rest in peace. Or where hearts could activate their protective barriers without cost of wear from constant use.

But without the required hearts to activate defenses... without a door to advance further into whatever secrets the ancients had hidden...

This was all the Goldcrest ruin contained.

Victor surveyed the rest of the chamber methodically, checking every corner. Searching for additional secrets, hidden passages, anything the Goldcrest might have concealed even from their own faction members.

He only found empty pedestals where prizes had surely rested once before being claimed.

The Goldcrest had looted everything they could carry away over years of having exclusive access.

But the chamber wasn't completely empty despite their thorough pillaging... Victor saw something that generated more questions than answers, something that made his instincts sharpen immediately.

Two forms on the opposite side from the chamber's entrance.

He approached slowly to examine them more thoroughly, professional caution warring with curiosity about what had been left behind.

And his breathing stopped completely.

They were statues made from dense crystal that gleamed faintly with internal light.

Just like his father's one..

Two human figures preserved perfectly as if they'd been converted to crystal in the middle of movement, their expressions frozen in the final moment before transformation. Every detail captured with impossible clarity… individual strands of hair, the texture of clothing, the lines around the eyes.

Victor attempted touching one carefully. His hand encountered a surface that felt more solid than the stone of the 'unbreakable' bridge his father had created before leaving the kingdom on his shoulders.

His mind worked rapidly through implications while examining the statues with growing horror.

'If there are two here... And the pattern is the same as the Starweaver ruin...'

'Then there's a high probability that Lykea and Lyzea are at the end of the other ruin. The door with three indentations. The one requiring three cores to open even deeper than this chamber goes should lead to them.'

Victor returned his attention to the statues before him, studying details that were still visible clearly in the chamber's strange ambient light.

Both had hollows in their chests that drew his focus immediately.

Perfect cavities... Geometric precisión.

As if something with complex connections had been removed perfectly intact without damaging surrounding the crystalline structure at all.

Where the mana hearts had been before transformation.

'Is it impossible to recover the person even by returning the heart?' Victor wondered while tracing the hollow with his fingers.

'Or perhaps the Goldcrest never returned them,' he thought with sadness mixing with anger. 'They may have obtained the crystallized hearts and simply... kept them. Using them as weapons. As political tools for leverage and power.'

'But if that's true... where are they now?'

The question troubled him more than the discovery itself. Because if the hearts weren't on pedestals protected by barriers or returned to their owners' chests...

Then someone had them somewhere, using them for purposes unknown.

It was a disturbing thought that explained many things about recent events.

It explained why Orion guarded these secrets so jealously despite the cost.

They connected much further back than anyone had suspected... even before the Goldcrest betrayal during the war.

And the extra hearts... if someone possessed them currently. If someone was using them actively...

Then Victor noticed something that made everything click into place with horrible certainty.

The faces of the statues.

He examined the features carefully, his eye trained to identify noble lineages. The bone structure, the jaw shape, the particular proportions... Details that remained even when converted to crystal and preserved through unknown processes.

The male statue...

Had the distinctive features of Yano's high families. The strong jaw, the straight nose, the specific cheekbone structure that appeared consistently across generations of careful breeding.

And the female...

Victor moved to examine the second statue more closely, suspicion growing into certainty.

The features were more delicate but equally distinctive. The pointed chin, the high cheekbones, the broader forehead characteristic of specific bloodlines...

All features common to the high families of Yino kingdom across the border.

Victor felt something cold settling in his stomach.

The Goldcrest hadn't formed their alliance with Yino by accident or recent opportunity.

And perhaps Yino had obtained power for their crystal corruption techniques so rapidly... thanks to help from more factors that were still unknown.

More rooted in the center of Yano's families than should have been possible if this was recent development.

'How long has this connection existed?' Victor wondered while staring at the statues. 'How far back does this alliance really go?'

Victor backed away from the statues slowly, his mind processing implications that kept expanding in scope.

Two additional crystallized hearts existed somewhere in the world.

He didn't know who had them now. Whether they were being used actively or stored for future deployment. Whether they remained intact after years of potential wear.

He had no way of knowing that Yino had possessed them long ago... but that was another story for later.

He only knew with certainty that at some point they had existed.

And someone, somewhere, might still have them.

Hurried footsteps echoed in the stairs behind him, breaking his concentration.

Victor turned sharply toward the sound, hand moving toward weapon instinctively.

One of his soldiers appeared in the chamber entrance. Though semi-fused with his wind element beast for enhanced speed, he was limping badly... Blood staining his uniform in multiple places. Face pale from pain and exertion that had pushed him beyond normal limits.

"Highness Victor!" the soldier gasped, nearly collapsing from exhaustion.

Victor crossed the distance in seconds. "What happened?"

"Attack," the soldier spat blood that had been pooling in his mouth. "Above. At the entrance. Large group of Gold-ranks. Too many to count exactly in the chaos. They ambushed us."

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