Chapter 195: Into the Zone Heart

Chapter 195: Chapter 195: Into the Zone Heart

Damon stood.

He was about to move when Caelia stopped him.

"You’re not going anywhere yet."

Damon looked at her.

"I’m fine."

"You just fought someone above the Lord Rank."

"And I’m standing." Damon retorted.

"That’s not the same thing."

Damon stared at her for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"You’re becoming troublesome."

This made Caelia smile as she responded.

"Someone has to stop you from doing stupid things."

Damon couldn’t argue with her anymore.

So he waited.

He drank another potion and allowed his Aether to settle.

There was no point rushing into the Zone Heart while exhausted anyways.

He needed to be at his best.

Especially after seeing how unstable Tempest Hollow had become.

Once his stamina had recovered, Damon finally stood.

"Alright. Now I’m ready."

Caelia nodded.

"Good."

The group returned to the formation.

Damon looked over it carefully.

The damage from his earlier attack was still visible.

More importantly, he could see what the masked group had done.

"They didn’t simply force it open."

Damon crouched beside the formation.

"They weakened it first."

Caelia looked closer.

"With the corrupt Aether?"

"Yes."

Damon traced one of the channels with his finger.

"They’ve been feeding it into the formation and the Zone Heart. It disrupted the normal flow and weakened the connection."

That explained the strange state of the zone.

The corruption wasn’t only affecting the beasts.

It had reached the source.

The Zone Heart itself had been damaged.

Damon already knew how to deal with this.

He had done something similar in Frostveil.

"Let’s clean it up."

Damon began working.

He redirected the remaining corrupt Aether instead of allowing it to spread further.

Then he refined it.

The impurities were separated from the elemental energy, leaving behind usable Aether.

Damon guided the purified energy back into the formation.

The formation reacted.

A faint glow appeared.

Then the ground shook.

The damaged structure slowly began to repair itself.

Caelia watched closely.

"It’s amazing you can use the corruption as fuel after refining it."

"It only needs the dangerous parts to be removed."

Damon continued.

"It’s still Aether. It just needs to be cleaned."

Soon, the formation grew brighter.

A low rumble came from beneath them.

Then the space in front of them split open.

A passage appeared.

Damon looked inside.

"We found it."

They didn’t waste time as the group entered immediately.

The moment Damon stepped through, he realized how different this place was from Frostveil’s Zone Heart chamber.

There was no solid floor.

No frozen tree.

No clear platform.

Instead, the entire chamber was filled with a slowly rotating storm.

Wind moved in enormous circles around them.

Lightning flashed through the darkness.

The currents were constantly changing.

Damon stopped near the entrance.

"Careful."

Everyone slowed down.

One wrong step could send them straight into the storm.

Freya moved ahead and released silver lightning to test the current.

The lightning immediately mixed with the surrounding storm and disappeared.

Sylphie flew forward instead and returned a moment later as she passed her findings through their bond.

It’s unstable everywhere.

Damon nodded.

"Then we’ll move slowly."

The group advanced.

Shiro created small ice platforms where possible, giving everyone something stable to step on.

Sylphie used wind to push against the strongest currents.

Freya’s lightning helped Damon understand where the electrical flow was moving.

Even Caelia and Snow contributed, freezing sections of the air long enough to create brief footholds.

It took time.

Much more time than Damon wanted.

But eventually, they saw it.

Damon stopped.

"There."

In the center of the storm floated a small dark sphere.

It was roughly the size of a human head.

But it wasn’t solid.

Countless thin strands of lightning twisted around one another inside it.

Pale green wind flowed around the outside.

The lightning formed the inner structure.

The wind moved around it like a protective layer.

Damon stared.

"So that’s the Heart."

The sphere pulsed.

Lightning suddenly shot outward.

The wind followed.

It carried the energy through the chamber before everything returned to the sphere.

Then it happened again.

Lightning went out. Wind followed.

The energy returned.

Again.

And again.

Damon understood.

"It’s breathing."

Caelia looked at him.

"Breathing?"

"Not literally."

Damon watched the cycle.

"The Heart sends elemental energy into the zone. The wind carries it through the surrounding channels, then returns what remains."

He remembered Frostveil.

"It works the same way there."

The Zone Heart wasn’t just a source.

It was part of the entire zone’s circulation.

It fed the zone and maintained its balance.

But something was wrong. Very wrong.

Damon could see it now.

The cycle wasn’t smooth.

Sometimes the lightning shot out too violently.

The wind would then rush after it and collide with the electrical current instead of carrying it.

The two elements fought each other.

The entire chamber shook.

Damon’s expression became serious.

"They damaged it badly."

The corruption had spread much deeper than he expected.

It had reached the Heart and disrupted its control over the zone.

That explained the chaos outside.

The storms.

The mutations.

The unstable Aether.

Everything was connected.

A sudden lightning strike shot toward them.

"Move!"

Everyone scattered.

The lightning struck the platform they had been standing on.

It shattered.

Another current of wind immediately swept through.

Shiro raised an Ice Wall. And the wind crashed into it as cracks appeared.

Freya moved beside Damon.

Sylphie spread her wings.

Caelia summoned her Ice Aether.

"Can we stabilize it from here?"

Damon shook his head.

"No."

He looked toward the dark sphere.

"We have to get closer."

So the group continued.

The closer they got, the worse the storm became.

Damon could feel the elemental Aether pressing against his body.

The lightning was wild.

The wind was constantly changing direction.

Even Sylphie struggled to guide them.

Shiro kept creating ice platforms while Caelia reinforced them.

Freya used her lightning to divert some of the electrical currents.

But they still had to move carefully.

Damon finally understood why the masked group had been trying to weaken the formation.

Getting to the Heart normally would already be difficult.

With the corruption inside it, stabilizing it would be even harder.

Still, Damon didn’t stop.

"We’re almost there."