"The Giant Tree Drills Fire"— His gaze locked onto the colossal tree dominating the mural.
Its branches spiraled unnaturally towards the unseen heavens, evoking the legendary World Pillar, Jianmu, and within its uppermost leaves, phantom shapes like three-legged sun-crows seemed to shimmer.
Beneath it stood the lone figure—(Suiren?) he guessed, recalling the chant—intensely focused on drilling into a piece of wood with a tool.
And embedded in the tip of that tool… was that dark red stone! Steven's heart leaped—he recognized it!
The mural clearly depicted faint, swirling patterns within the stone, like captured, flowing fire.
This had to be the legendary "Fire Seed," that flame fragment of the Pangu Axe!
And the gaze of the fire-driller… it was filled with the pride of bringing the first spark of light to humanity!"
This is it! The Fire Seed! A fragment of Pangu's axe!" Steven breathed, excitement surging through him.
"This thing… it can definitely make fire! The tribe needs it! We have to find it!"
"Cecil! Now! Analyze this mural! Zoom in! The fire-drilling details! That stone!" he yelled in his mind.
"Acknowledged… Attempting high-resolution scan… Recalibrating optical sensors…" Cecil's voice stuttered, thick with static.
"Cross-referencing visual data with known Pangu Axe fragment signatures… Warning! Detecting… powerful… energy resonance… Pattern match with target designation… 'Fire Seed' artifact… high probability… Confidence: 98.7%! Simultaneously… detecting… extremely complex… layered… encrypted data… embedded within mural substrate… Attempting… Level One… decryption protocols…"
Pain exploded behind Steven's eyes, far worse than before.
It felt like his very consciousness was being forcibly plugged into an ancient, overloaded power socket!
He was pulled out of his body, engulfed by roaring phantom flames, hearing cries from the dawn of time, feeling the raw, untamed power contained within that single painted stone… and the fierce, unyielding will of the Fire-Bringer!
He saw fragmented visions—a swirling Taiji symbol, a cracked tortoise shell glowing with characters, fleeting glimpses of a one-eyed god on a throne and another wielding a scythe…
"…No… don't… Stop… AAAAAHHHH!!!"
He clawed at his head, screaming incoherently as his mind threatened to shatter under the ancient onslaught.
And the rock wall before him—the ancient stone canvas depicting the birth of fire—responded with a deep, grinding roar!
"CRACK… CRACK… RUMBLE…"
Not scraping this time, but the definitive, terrifying sound of immense stone machinery or a breaking seal!
Dust showered down as the wall itself shuddered, a vertical fissure appearing, widening, splitting the mural of the fire-driller in two!
A blast of wind erupted from the opening—a wind colder than the cave's deepest ice, fouler than any tomb, thick with the stench of sulfur, decay, and something utterly alien and malevolent!
And the rift itself… it wasn't empty darkness. It opened onto a roiling expanse of dark, blood-red energy, like a window into a molten hellscape, filled with indistinct, writhing shadows!
"WARNING! WARNING! HIGH-RISK SPATIAL FISSURE DETECTED! ENERGY SIGNATURES… OFF SCALE! DETECTING MULTIPLE UNKNOWN ENTITIES… HIGH THREAT… ATTEMPTING TO BREACH INTERFACE… THREAT LEVEL… CLASSIFIED: EXTINCTION-LEVEL!!! IMMEDIATE EVACUATION RECOMMENDED! CORE SYSTEMS… PROTECTIVE SHUTDOWN PROTOCOL INITIATED… ZZZZZZZAP————!!!"
Cecil's synthesized voice rose to a frantic electronic shriek before dissolving into a final, heart-stopping burst of static. Silence.
Utter, complete, terrifying silence from the AI that had been his constant companion.
"No—!!!!"
Steven let out the rawest, most desperate cry since his arrival in this forsaken era.
His last fragment of vision, before darkness completely overwhelmed him, was of the thing emerging from the blood-red rift.
A mass of burning black fire tentacles, twisting and churning, vaguely revealing countless serpent-like silhouettes within their writhing forms, radiating a palpable chill and predatory hunger that felt ancient, deeper than the Nine Serenities, carrying an almost Taotie-like avarice!
It had already extruded nearly half its impossible form through the opening, and its myriad non-eyes seemed to fix directly upon him.
Endless darkness and ice-cold terror claimed him utterly.