Chapter 136: A Clear Answer

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: A Clear Answer

From what they had seen so far, it was hard to believe this place had been hidden beneath Frostveil for so long.

Caelia lowered her voice.

"Do you think this really leads to the Zone Heart?"

Damon looked ahead.

"Everything we’ve found points toward it."

He paused.

"But let’s not celebrate yet, until we get to the end."

Caelia only smiled in response.

Shiro, however, didn’t seem interested in their conversation.

The Frost Qilin kept moving ahead.

His senses were focused entirely on the Ice Elemental essence.

Snow was the same.

Her ears remained raised as she followed the faint traces around them.

They were both becoming more excited with every step.

Damon noticed.

"Looks like they’re more confident than we are."

Caelia smiled.

"They probably already know."

"Then I’ll trust them."

They continued.

Soon, the narrow route began to widen.

The frozen walls slowly opened up.

Damon stopped.

Caelia stopped beside him.

And the others looked ahead.

A massive cavern stretched before them.

The ceiling was so high that they could barely see it clearly.

Ancient ice formations covered almost everything.

Huge crystalline structures stretched from the floor toward the ceiling, branching in different directions like the roots of an enormous frozen tree.

The deeper parts of the cavern were filled with pale blue light.

Caelia stared.

"This..."

Damon slowly looked around.

"This has to be it."

They had imagined countless possibilities while searching for the Zone Heart.

A massive crystal.

A giant core.

Some kind of powerful elemental structure.

But what stood in the center of the cavern wasn’t any of those things.

Damon and Caelia moved closer.

The structure was enormous.

A massive frozen tree was buried halfway into the ground.

Its trunk was formed from translucent blue white ice and was thick enough for several people to stand around it.

Countless crystalline roots extended from its base.

Some spread across the cavern floor.

Others climbed the walls.

Many disappeared completely into the surrounding ice.

Damon’s eyes narrowed.

"Those aren’t normal roots."

Caelia stepped closer.

"They’re channels."

Damon nodded.

"Exactly."

They watched as pale blue Ice Elemental essence slowly moved through them.

It didn’t flow randomly.

The essence started at the center.

It traveled through the roots and disappeared into the walls.

Then, after several seconds, it returned.

Again.

And again.

Like a heartbeat.

Caelia looked around the cavern.

"So these really are connected to the entire zone."

Damon nodded slowly.

"That’s what we thought."

But something was wrong.

They moved closer to one of the channels.

The ice inside it was clear and beautiful.

The elemental essence flowed smoothly through it.

Then Damon looked at another.

His expression changed.

Dark gray cracks had spread through the channel.

The Ice Aether inside moved violently.

It collided with something darker.

Something unstable.

Caelia’s face became serious.

"This is the mutation."

Damon nodded.

"Yeah."

He watched the channel carefully.

The corrupted Aether wasn’t simply sitting there.

It was moving through the channel with the Ice Aether.

Worse, it was spreading.

The pure Ice Aether was being pushed aside as the unstable energy forced its way through the channel.

Damon looked toward the frozen tree.

Then he understood.

"It’s reaching the Heart."

Caelia followed his gaze.

Around the base of the frozen tree was a dense mass of compressed Ice Aether.

It floated several feet above the ground.

Compared to the enormous cavern, it wasn’t particularly large.

Maybe three meters across.

But the pressure coming from it was completely different.

The temperature dropped around them.

Frost covered the ground.

Every breath they took became white.

Even their footsteps were quickly covered in ice.

Snow moved closer to Caelia.

Shiro remained still.

Damon could feel the pressure against his body.

Yet the Heart wasn’t attacking them.

It wasn’t even reacting to their presence.

It was simply working.

Trying to maintain the balance of the zone.

Damon stared at it.

"The Heart isn’t causing the mutation."

Caelia nodded.

"It’s trying to stop it."

Damon watched another pulse travel through the channels.

"But it’s losing."

Silence filled the cavern.

The next pulse came.

The Heart pushed the Ice Aether through the channels.

Some of the channels carried pure essence.

Others carried corrupted Aether.

The two mixed together.

The result was obvious.

The Heart couldn’t properly regulate what was coming into it.

It tried to circulate the energy.

The corrupted Aether returned.

It tried again.

The same thing happened.

Damon slowly clenched his hand.

"So this is why Frostveil keeps getting worse."

Caelia’s expression became heavier.

"The Heart is being overwhelmed."

"Exactly."

Damon looked at the damaged channels.

"And if this continues..."

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

Caelia understood.

Eventually, the unstable Aether would spread through enough of the channels that the pure Ice Elemental essence would no longer be able to recover.

The Heart would be forced to circulate more and more corrupted energy.

And Frostveil would continue mutating.

Until there was almost nothing left to stabilize.

Damon’s Spirit Origin pulsed quietly.

He felt it again.

That strange response to the pure Ice Elemental essence.

He didn’t move yet.

Instead, he watched.

They had spent days investigating this Zone.

They had fought beasts.

Studied the changes in the Aether.

Followed passages.

Tested the purified essence.

Everything had been pointing toward this moment.

Now they finally had an answer.

Then the Heart pulsed again.

Boom.

A wave of pale blue essence rushed through the cavern.

The crystalline roots lit up.

For a brief moment, the entire cavern became visible.

Damon’s eyes widened.

There were far more channels than he had realized.

Hundreds of them.

They stretched beyond the cavern and disappeared into the surrounding rock.

Some went upward.

Others descended deeper into the ground.

And then Damon saw something different.

One enormous channel extended toward the direction they had come from.

More specifically, toward the passage connecting Frostveil to Tempest Hollow.

Damon’s expression changed.

"Caelia."

She followed his gaze.

The channel was different from the others.

Dark cracks covered almost its entire length.

The Ice Aether inside was being violently mixed with unstable energy.

And the amount of corrupted Aether flowing through it was far greater than the others.