Chapter 9: The Path of Pink Crystal
The tunnel seemed endless.
Lyra walked for what felt like hours.
Perhaps days.
Time had become meaningless.
There were no windows.
No sunlight.
No moon.
Only the endless glow of pink crystals embedded within the walls.
Unlike the dungeon above, this place felt peaceful.
That realization alone unsettled her.
Everything connected to the Demon King should have felt oppressive.
Hostile.
Corrupted.
Instead, the tunnel felt strangely comforting.
The crystals illuminated her path whenever she approached.
Then dimmed behind her.
As though guiding her somewhere.
The thought should have frightened her.
Instead it made her curious.
The crystals felt familiar.
Connected.
Almost like distant relatives of the crystal that had dissolved into her body.
Every so often she stopped and touched one.
The result was always the same.
Warmth.
Recognition.
Nothing more.
As the hours passed, Lyra became increasingly aware of the changes occurring inside her.
Her mana had transformed.
That much was obvious.
But the transformation hadn't stopped.
The pink mana continued circulating through her pathways.
Refining them.
Adjusting them.
Changing them.
The process wasn't painful.
It felt natural.
Which somehow worried her more.
She had spent twenty-six years understanding her own mana.
Now it felt like she was learning an entirely new system.
Lyra extended a hand.
Pink mana gathered above her palm.
The spell formed almost instinctively.
A Mana Light.
The orb floated quietly.
Stable.
Far more stable than before.
She frowned.
Then deliberately increased the output.
The orb brightened immediately.
No resistance.
No instability.
No strain.
Lyra froze.
Her old mana had always resisted her.
Every spell required effort.
Focus.
Discipline.
The new mana responded eagerly.
Almost happily.
The difference was impossible to ignore.
For the first time in her life, casting felt easy.
The realization left her deeply unsettled.
Several hours later, she discovered something stranger.
The tunnel walls had changed.
The pink crystals became larger.
More numerous.
Some were the size of carriages.
Others stretched across entire sections of the passage.
At first Lyra assumed they were natural formations.
Then she looked closer.
Ancient carvings covered the crystal surfaces.
Images.
Records.
Memories.
She stopped before one particularly large crystal.
The moment her hand touched it, the image activated.
Light flooded her vision.
Suddenly she was no longer alone.
A woman stood before her.
Tall.
Beautiful.
Curved horns rising from her head.
A long tail swaying behind her.
Dark wings folded neatly at her back.
Pink mana flowed around her body.
The vision wasn't real.
More like an ancient recording.
The woman spoke.
Lyra couldn't understand the language.
Yet somehow the emotions reached her anyway.
Devotion.
Longing.
Obsession.
The horned woman knelt before a towering shadow seated upon a throne.
The figure's face remained hidden.
Only overwhelming authority radiated from him.
The woman's gaze never left him.
It burned with desire.
Possessiveness.
A hunger to stand at his side.
To claim his attention.
To conquer his heart if she had to.
The intensity was unsettling.
Then the image vanished.
Lyra stumbled backward.
Her heart pounded.
The crystal darkened.
Silent once more.
"What was that?"
No answer came.
Only silence.
Yet one thing became clear.
The tunnel wasn't random.
Someone built this place.
Someone connected to the crystal.
Someone connected to her new mana.
The journey continued.
More visions appeared.
Fragments.
Moments.
Pieces of forgotten memories.
The same horned woman appeared again and again.
Watching from the shadows.
Standing beside a throne.
Reaching toward a distant figure she could never quite touch.
Sometimes she smiled.
Sometimes she looked furious.
Sometimes heartbreak flashed across her face.
Yet every vision revolved around the same presence.
A ruler.
A king.
A being whose face remained hidden by darkness.
The woman's obsession only seemed to deepen with each fragment.
It was not simple loyalty.
Nor worship.
It felt far more personal.
Far more dangerous.
As though she desired to possess something that could never truly belong to her.
Lyra wasn't sure why the visions unsettled her so much.
Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that the woman had wanted far more than power.
Eventually exhaustion caught her.
She collapsed beside a crystal formation and slept.
The dreams came immediately.
Pink skies.
Endless crystal fields.
A distant silhouette seated upon a throne.
And a woman.
The same woman from the visions.
Horned.
Winged.
Beautiful.
She stood far away.
Watching.
Waiting.
Her features remained impossible to identify.
Every time Lyra focused on her face, the dream shifted.
Yet the emotions remained.
Desire.
Expectation.
Yearning.
As though she had spent ages chasing something forever beyond her reach.
Lyra woke abruptly.
Her heart raced.
The dream faded almost immediately.
Only fragments remained.
Still, the feeling lingered.
Waiting.
For what?
She had no idea.
The tunnel finally ended sometime later.
Lyra noticed the change gradually.
Fresh air.
A faint breeze.
The smell of rain.
Her pace quickened.
The crystals brightened.
The passage began sloping upward.
Then she saw light.
Real light.
Sunlight.
The sight nearly brought tears to her eyes.
She hadn't realized how much she missed it.
Lyra broke into a run.
The tunnel opened suddenly.
She stumbled out onto a hillside.
Grass.
Trees.
Sky.
Clouds.
Real life.
For several moments she simply stood there.
Breathing.
Staring.
Alive.
The tunnel entrance behind her glowed softly.
Pink crystals covered the opening.
As she watched, the light began fading.
Stone shifted.
The entrance slowly sealed itself.
Within minutes it was gone.
Only an ordinary cliff remained.
No tunnel.
No crystals.
Nothing.
The path had closed.
Perhaps forever.
Lyra touched the stone.
Nothing happened.
The realization settled heavily.
Whatever had happened beneath Velkaris was over.
There was no going back.
A distant road wound through the countryside below.
And beyond it stood a familiar building.
Large.
Elegant.
Crimson lanterns hanging from black wood.
The Crimson Lotus.
Lyra blinked.
She recognized it immediately.
Ashfall.
The tunnel had brought her all the way back to the frontier town.
Not merely back.
Directly beside the Crimson Lotus.
The coincidence felt impossible.
Yet she was too exhausted to question it.
Relief flooded through her.
Safety.
Food.
A bed.
The simple thoughts felt heavenly.
She began walking.
Then stopped.
Pain surged through her body.
The transformation.
The tunnel.
The crystal.
Everything hit at once.
Her pink mana suddenly erupted.
Not violently.
But powerfully.
The energy surged through her pathways.
Her vision blurred.
The world tilted.
Lyra stumbled.
She tried to keep walking.
Failed.
The road swayed beneath her feet.
The Crimson Lotus seemed increasingly distant.
Her legs finally gave out.
She collapsed beside the roadside.
Pink mana flickered around her fingers.
The last thing she saw was the crimson glow of lanterns in the distance.
Then darkness claimed her completely.
And somewhere within the Crimson Lotus, a certain violet-haired woman would soon discover something that should not exist.