The corridor beyond the Throne Room was wider than the one I had crossed before. The walls were high, perhaps six meters, and they must have been majestic once. I could still see traces of frescoes under layers of gray dust - scenes of banquets, dances, celebrations. But they were faded, almost illegible, like memories that fade.
My footsteps echoed in the silence.
That was what struck me most. Not the gray. Not the destruction. The silence.
There was no wind. There were no voices. Not even the crackle of old wood settling, or the rustle of curtains moving. Just... nothing. As if the palace itself had stopped breathing.
I walked slowly, my hands still faintly luminous at my sides. The light they emanated cast dancing shadows on the walls, creating the illusion of movement in a completely motionless world.
After a few minutes - or maybe it was half an hour, time seemed to work strangely here - the corridor opened into a larger hall.
And there I saw them.
The statues.
There were at least twenty of them, arranged throughout the room. Some were standing, others sitting on chairs now collapsed, still others on the ground, as if they had fallen. All were golden - or rather, covered in that same gray, dull gold that had invaded everything else in the palace.
I approached the nearest one.
It was a woman. Young, perhaps my age, though it was hard to tell for certain. She wore an elaborate dress that must have been magnificent once, now reduced to little more than rigid rags. Her hair was long, gathered in a complex braid. Her hands were raised in front of her face, as if she was trying to protect herself from something.
But it was her eyes that disturbed me most.
They were open.
Empty, gray, lifeless. But open. As if she had been frozen mid-scream.
I reached out a hand, hesitant. My fingers brushed her arm.
Cold. Hard. Stone.
But then, something changed.
Where my skin touched the statue, the light in my hands pulsed. And for an instant - just one, very brief - I saw color. The woman's skin became pale pink. Her hair returned blonde. The dress shone red and gold.
And her eyes... for that single, impossible moment... looked at me.
Frightened, I pulled my hand back. The color vanished immediately. The woman returned to being a statue. Gray. Dead. But those eyes...
"You're not a statue," I whispered. "You're... you're a person."
My stomach tightened. I looked at the other figures in the room with growing horror. All those statues... were they all people? People transformed into stone, trapped, frozen in the exact moment the curse struck them?
Were they still alive in there?
I turned, suddenly nauseated. I had to get out of that room. Now.
I found another exit - an open arch leading to another corridor - and hurried toward it. But as I walked, my gaze fell on the floor.
Footprints.
Not mine - those left traces of faint light, which faded after a few seconds. These were different. Deeper. Older. As if they had been imprinted in the dust long ago and no one had ever erased them.
They led in the opposite direction from where I had come.
Not knowing quite why, I decided to follow them.
✦ ✦ ✦
The footprints guided me through a labyrinth of corridors. Some were narrow and low, with ceilings that seemed about to collapse. Others were wide and airy, with elaborate columns that must once have supported magnificent domes.
Everywhere, I saw signs of the life that had been.
Here, a dining room with a long table still set. The plates were gray, the food - if there had ever been food - was long gone. But I could imagine what it must have been like: people sitting around that table, laughing, talking, living.
There, a library with shelves rising to the ceiling. The books were mostly destroyed - the paper reduced to dust, the covers fallen to pieces. But some were still intact, covered with symbols I couldn't read. I wanted to take one, to open it, to search for answers. But the footprints continued, and something inside me said I had to keep following them.
Further on, a room full of musical instruments. A giant harp, its strings broken. Drums covered in gray cobwebs. What looked like a piano, but more elaborate, with keys that glowed faintly when my light touched them.
I stopped there for a moment. I touched one of the keys.
Ding.
The sound was pure, crystalline, completely out of place in that world of silence. It echoed in the room for seconds that seemed endless, then faded, leaving the void even more oppressive than before.
I didn't touch any other keys.
✦ ✦ ✦
After what seemed like hours - but were probably just minutes - the footprints led me to a spiral staircase going upward. The steps were steep and narrow, and with each step I felt the wood creak under my feet. Several times I thought it would give way, but it held. Barely, but it held.
I climbed.
And climbed.
And climbed.
Finally, the staircase ended at a small wooden door. I pushed.
It opened.
And I was left breathless.
I was on a terrace. No, a balcony. No... not even that. It was more like a watchtower, open on all four sides, without walls or protection. Just a circular platform with a low, decorated railing.
And from there, I could see everything.
The Golden Kingdom stretched below me in every direction.
Or rather, what remained of the Golden Kingdom.
It was... immense.
I hadn't understood, when I was in the Throne Room, how large this place was. But now, seeing it from above, I realized the true scale of what had been.
The palace where I stood was at the center of everything - a massive complex of towers, domes, courtyards and gardens that extended for at least a kilometer in every direction. Beyond that, I saw the city. Buildings that must once have been houses, shops, temples. Streets that wound in elaborate patterns, almost forming... symbols? Hard to tell from this height.
And beyond the city, countryside. Fields that had once been cultivated. Orchards. Vineyards. A river that crossed everything like a silver serpent - though now the water seemed still, stagnant.
But everything - everything - was gray.
Imagine the most beautiful scene you've ever seen. A perfect sunset, or a meadow full of flowers in spring. Now take away every color. Every hue. Every shade. Leave only gray. And silence.
It was like looking at a magnificent painting that someone had covered with gray paint, erasing every detail, every emotion, every life.
I felt tears run down my face again.
"It was beautiful," I whispered to the wind that wasn't there. "Wasn't it?"
"The most beautiful..."
Aura's voice. Clearer this time, less distant.
"How could anyone destroy all this?" I asked, knowing I was speaking to a spirit who might not even truly hear me.
"He didn't want to... he was just trying to save... me..."
There was so much pain in those words. Not anger toward her father. Not accusation. Just... infinite sadness.
"Aura," I said, louder. "Where are you? Why can't I see you?"
Silence for a long moment. Then:
"I am... everywhere. And nowhere. I am between the living and the dead. Between what was and what will be."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to. Not yet. But you will understand. One step at a time, remember?"
"You told me to find the fragments. Of the Artifact, right? The Crown?"
"Yes... four fragments... in the palace... one in the crypt... one in the library... one in the courtyard... one in the tower..."
"And the fifth?"
"The fifth... is with him."
"With who? With... with Master Elias?"
An even longer silence. Then, so softly I almost didn't hear it:
"Yes."
"And where—"
"Guardian."
Her voice had changed. More urgent.
"What?"
"Below. In the courtyard. There's someone. One of the last ones. You can... you can help him. Please."
I looked down from the balcony. The palace courtyard was huge, full of what must once have been vegetation. Now there were only dead trees and dried fountains. But there, in the middle of everything, I saw a figure.
Tall. Motionless. Gray like everything else.
But unlike the statues in the hall, this one was... different. There was something about it that still seemed... alive? Not in the normal way. But as if it was fighting against petrification, resisting through pure willpower.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"A guardian. Like you. Not completely... but enough. He's the last one who remained conscious. If you can reach him... he can help you. He can explain... things that I cannot."
"How do I reach him?"
"The stairs... on the right... lead to the courtyard. Go. Please. He doesn't have much time."
I looked in the direction Aura had indicated - or rather, in the direction her voice seemed to come from. I saw another staircase, this one descending instead of ascending.
I took one last look at the gray kingdom below me. So vast. So dead. So impossible to save.
And then I thought of the girl in the bed. Of Aura asking her father to be happy. Of Master Elias who had destroyed everything for love.
"One step at a time," I murmured to myself.
And I began to descend.
✦ ✦ ✦
The staircase led through other parts of the palace I hadn't yet explored. Smaller, more intimate rooms. Those that had perhaps been private bedrooms. Studies. Children's rooms, with toys still scattered on the floor - gray dolls with empty eyes, rocking horses frozen mid-swing.
Every room was a small piece of tragedy. Every object, a life interrupted.
I tried not to think about it too much. If I had stopped on every detail, on every story these objects told, I would never have made it to the end.
The staircase finally ended at a heavy door. I pushed it with difficulty - it was metal, not wood, and the mechanism was rusted. But eventually it gave way.
The outside air hit me like a punch.
It wasn't cold. It wasn't warm. It was just... empty. As if someone had taken away not only the color but also the temperature, leaving a nothing that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Just absent.
I was in the courtyard.
It was even larger than it seemed from above. The ground was stone, with elaborate patterns that must once have formed magnificent mosaics. Now they were just gray lines on darker gray. Here and there, flowerbeds that had once contained flowers. Fountains that had once sprayed water. Statues - more statues - that had once been decorations and were now standing tombs.
And there, at the center of everything, the figure I had seen from above.
It was a man. Tall, massive, in full armor. Or rather, what had been armor. Now it was fused with his body, indistinguishable from petrified flesh. He held a sword planted in the ground before him, his hands resting on the hilt.
His eyes were closed.
But when I approached, when the light in my hands shone brighter, those eyes opened.
Slowly. Painfully. As if even just that action required an immense effort.
He looked at me.
And for the first time since I had awakened in that gray world, I felt truly seen. Not as an apparition or a mirage. But as a real person, by another real person.
His mouth moved. No sound came out at first - just gray dust falling from petrified lips. But then, with a voice hoarse and slow like rocks rubbing together:
"You..."
I took another step forward.
"Me," I replied, not knowing what else to say.
The man's eyes - gray but still incredibly alive - scanned me from head to toe. They stopped on my luminous hands. Something that could be surprise, or perhaps relief, crossed his petrified face.
"You... have... the mark..."
"What mark?"
With enormous difficulty, the man raised a hand from the sword. He pointed at me.
"Light... in the hands... in the heart... in the blood... The mark of the... Guardian..."
That word again. Guardian.
"Who are you?" I asked, moving closer still.
"I... was... a guardian... like you... once..."
His voice was growing weaker. I could see that speaking cost him everything he had left of strength.
"Master Elias... placed me here... to protect... the palace... until his return... or until the arrival... of the next one..."
"How much time has passed?"
A sound that was perhaps a laugh. Or a sob. Hard to tell.
"Years... decades... centuries... here there is no time... only waiting... only stone..."
"Can I help you?" I showed him my luminous hands. "Can I... I don't know, bring you back?"
The man's eyes softened. If he could have smiled, I think he would have.
"No, young Guardian... I am too... far gone... the stone has taken too much... of me... But you... you can still save the others..."
"How?"
"Find... the fragments... reassemble... the Crown... Use its power... to break... the curse... Bring back... the color... bring back... life..."
His voice was fading. I could see cracks forming on his body - not cracks of breaking, but of final petrification. The last pieces of humanity yielding to the curse.
"Wait!" I said, almost shouting. "I still don't understand! How do I do it? Where do I find the fragments? And Master Elias, where is he?"
But the man was no longer looking at me. His eyes were fixed on something beyond me. Something I couldn't see.
"The light..." he whispered. "After so much darkness... finally... light..."
And with that last word, he stopped.
He didn't collapse. He didn't dissolve. He simply... stopped. His eyes closed. His body became completely stone. And the last spark of life that had remained in him - that stubborn resistance against the gray - vanished.
I stood there, staring at him, not knowing what to do or say.
Was he dead? Or just... become a statue like all the others?
"He is free."
Aura's voice, sweet and sad.
"Free?"
"The stone holds prisoners... but when the light comes... when a Guardian returns... those who resist can finally... let go."
"But I didn't do anything."
"You brought hope. Sometimes... that's all people need... to find peace."
I looked at the man-statue again. The Guardian like me. One who had resisted for years - perhaps centuries - waiting for someone to come save the kingdom he could no longer protect.
I knelt before him. I didn't know why. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
"I don't know if I can do what you ask," I said to the silent statue. "I don't even know if I understand what I have to do. But... I'll try. I promise you."
The wind - the first wind I had felt since I woke up - blew gently through the courtyard. For a second, just a second, I thought I heard a voice carried on that breeze.
"Thank you."
Then the silence returned.
I stood up. My legs were trembling, but not from fear. It was something else. Determination? Responsibility? Or perhaps just the realization of the weight of what I had been asked to do?
I looked around the courtyard. Somewhere here there was a fragment. One of the four pieces of the Crown I had to find before I could face... what? Master Elias? The King? Or whatever he had become?
But that was a problem for later.
For now, I just had to do what Aura had said. And what the Stone Guardian had whispered with his last words.
One step at a time.
I began walking toward the opposite side of the courtyard, where I saw what looked like the entrance to a smaller building. Perhaps a crypt. Or a library. Or some other part of the palace that hid secrets.
My luminous footprints shone on the gray ground behind me.
And ahead of me, the dead Golden Kingdom waited to be explored.
END OF CHAPTER 2
Continues in Chapter 3: "The Path of Sums" Complete Level 3 to unlock Key: 1011