SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign
Chapter 121: Drift Core (2)

Chapter 121: Drift Core (2)

Lucen gestured vaguely to the warped geometry ahead. "Time doesn’t count the same in here."

Varik started walking toward him.

"You’re still alive."

Lucen held his arms out for a second. "Yeah, I was this close to monologuing my way into insanity."

Varik gave him a look.

Lucen dropped his arms. "Fine. No jokes. How much of that upstairs did you see?"

"All of it."

"Did you leave Elaren breathing?"

Varik nodded once. "For now."

Lucen grunted. "Well, lucky him."

They stood in silence for a beat.

The floor under them pulsed once. Not violently. Just enough to remind them it was watching.

Lucen glanced down.

"You feel that?"

"Yeah."

"You think it’s sentient?"

Varik stepped to the side and crouched down beside a glyph ring carved into the floor. He touched two fingers to it. The ring responded, barely. A flicker. Like an eye half-opening.

"I think it remembers," Varik said. "That’s worse."

Lucen looked down one of the hallways curling to the left, arched, flickering with drifting shapes inside. Too distant to identify. He shifted his weight.

"I don’t think this place is trying to kill me."

"That’s generous."

"I think it’s trying to use me."

Varik stood up again. "Because of the shard?"

Lucen reached into his coat pocket and pulled it out.

It didn’t glow. Didn’t hum.

Just sat there. Matte black. Cold.

Like an unfinished thought.

Varik looked at it for a second longer than usual.

Then said, "You don’t use something like that without consequences."

Lucen put it away. "It used me. I just picked it up."

Varik stepped past him. "That’s usually how it starts."

Lucen followed. "You’re saying I shouldn’t activate it?"

"I’m saying if you’re going to, do it on purpose."

Lucen nodded once.

Then muttered under his breath, "You ever wonder how deep these things go?"

Varik didn’t stop walking.

But he said, "Every day."

—

Lucen adjusted his stance as they reached the center node.

The floor looked... stable. Or at least symmetrical. A raised dais, clean stone spiraling outward like it was spun into place instead of built. The air felt warmer here. Not pleasant, just denser.

He stepped carefully, watching the lines. Some of the glyphwork pulsed, others just sat quiet like broken neon signs.

"This is the heart, right?" he asked.

Varik gave a shallow nod. "Looks like it."

Lucen glanced up. "So what happens if I poke it?"

Varik shrugged. "You already picked up the shard. Don’t think it gets worse."

"Bold optimism."

Lucen took one more step.

And slipped.

Not badly. Just enough to jolt him sideways, one boot sliding across a loose rune line.

His hand slapped the edge of the dais for balance.

Then, contact.

The shard in his pocket buzzed. Just once. Quick.

The entire room dimmed.

Then lit up like sunrise through glass.

Varik turned fast. "Lucen—?"

"I tripped!" Lucen barked. "It was barely a—"

A pulse hit.

Not vertical.

Not seismic.

Spatial.

The platform cracked around them. Not breaking, peeling. Like someone unzipped the world’s texture layer.

[CORE SHIFT TRIGGERED]

Lucen’s system dumped text faster than he could read it.

[Perception Anchor Lost]

[Local Logic Map: NULL]

[User Sync Failed]

[Teleportation Imminent]

He looked at Varik, panic not quite hitting but knocking on the door.

"You said it wouldn’t get worse!"

Varik looked up at the ceiling as it began to fold inward like a tunnel collapsing in reverse.

"I was wrong."

Then the floor dropped.

—

They landed hard.

Stone beneath them. But it wasn’t the same.

The world snapped back into focus in sections.

Wall. Light. Glyph. Shadow.

Lucen groaned and sat up.

The floor was red-gray stone. The air burned faintly like it held onto a memory of flame. The sky above was... not sky. Just void. And ceiling.

Thick. Pressing. Covered in rune veins that pulsed faintly like nerves under skin.

Lucen muttered, "This isn’t the core."

Varik stood, one hand resting on the hilt at his side now. Still calm. Still scanning.

"No. This is something older."

Lucen looked around.

Three corridors. No marks. No wind. Just silence.

His system pinged faintly.

[New Zone Detected: Labyrinth Core Layer]

[Exit Conditions: Unknown]

[Thread Trace Access: Suppressed]

He frowned. "Okay. That’s new."

"What is?"

"It’s not even pretending it has answers anymore."

Varik walked to one corridor and paused.

"Walls are real. Space is layered. This isn’t a projection."

Lucen checked the mana in his veins. Still flowing. Still his.

He turned back toward the center of the room they landed in.

There, just above where they fell, a phrase etched into the wall.

No glowing text. Just carved deep.

YOU WANTED PURPOSE. PROVE YOU DESERVE IT.

Lucen read it once.

Then again.

He whispered, "That doesn’t sound like a core to me. That sounds like a challenge."

Varik looked at him.

"It’s both."

Lucen cracked his neck once.

Then muttered, "Next time I trip, just punch me."

Varik didn’t smile.

But he did say, "Deal."

—

Lucen took two steps toward the left corridor, then stopped. Something felt... off.

No shift in temperature.

No mana pulse.

Just a tickle in the back of his skull. That subtle, oh-so-specific pressure that meant one thing:

The dungeon was watching.

He turned to say something.

Didn’t get the chance.

The wall behind him exploded.

Not loud. Not flashy.

Just, boom. Stone peeled inward like it had been vacuum-sealed. A rush of air, a hiss, then a burst of needle-like shards burst out in a straight cone, fast and silent.

Lucen jerked back.

Didn’t need to scream.

Varik was already moving.

His hand snapped forward, not casting, not flaring, just grabbing.

He caught one of the shards mid-air. Twisted. Let the magic inside bend just enough to fracture the glyph line behind it.

Then swept his other arm out wide, and a pulse of pressure rolled through the room like an invisible hammer.

Every single shard dropped mid-flight.

Clink.

Clatter.

Silence.

Lucen stared.

"...You caught one."

Varik looked at the stone piece in his hand. "Too light. Designed for venom, not impact."

He dropped it.

Lucen tilted his head. "You think it’s poison?"

"Trace sigil at the core. Probably mana rot. Would’ve dissolved your legs."

"Awesome."

Varik moved to the wall. No hesitation. He touched a bare segment between the cracks and muttered low, "Trigger mechanism’s inside. Remote-sequenced. The room’s watching for movement density."

Lucen blinked. "You got that from touching it?"

"Learned to listen."