The stairs descended into darkness.
They were older than the rest of the palace, I could feel it. The stone was different - rougher, colder. The walls were rough, without decorations, without frescoes. Just bare rock that seemed carved directly into the earth itself.
Each step produced an echo that was lost in the depths. As if the stairs had no end. As if I were descending not just underground, but into something deeper. More ancient.
I stopped halfway, my hand against the wall for balance. The darkness below me was absolute. The little light filtering from the library above didn't reach this far down.
I touched the pocket where I kept the two fragments. One - the almost disintegrated teddy bear - was cold and fragile. The other - the golden piece of the Crown - pulsed warm, alive, like a second heart.
"Aura," I called into the void. "Are you ready?"
Silence for a moment. Two. Three.
Then...
Light.
✦ ✦ ✦
Not explosive. Not sudden. Not like when I fought the shadows.
This light was gentle. Patient. Like dawn rising slowly beyond the horizon, driving away the darkness not with violence but with inevitable presence.
It appeared before me, halfway down the stairs. First just an indistinct glow. Then a silhouette. Then more defined contours. Then...
Her.
Aura.
No longer a bodyless voice. No longer a whisper in the air. No longer an invisible presence guiding my steps.
She was here. Before me. As real as a spirit could be.
She was small. Eight years old, perhaps even younger. Her blonde hair fell on her shoulders in soft waves that seemed made of liquid light, shining with golden reflections that had no source. Her eyes were amber - no, pure gold - and contained depths no child should have. Depths of one who has seen death. And what comes after.
She wore a simple white dress that floated around her as if underwater. Or in the wind. Or both. It moved in ways that defied physics - undulating, sliding, never completely still.
And she was transparent.
Not completely. I could see her features clearly. The small nose. The thin lips curved in an uncertain smile. The eyelashes that blinked when she stared at me.
But I could also see through her. The wall behind. The stairs beneath her feet that she wasn't truly touching. Like looking at someone through crystal-clear water.
She was there. But not completely.
Present. But not entirely.
Real. But in a way that didn't belong to this world.
We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. I, alive and solid and anchored to reality. She, dead and translucent and suspended between worlds.
Then, slowly, she reached out a hand toward me.
Her voice - the one I had heard only as a distant whisper - came out clear. Real. Almost physical.
"Hello."
It was a child's voice. Light. Musical. But with a hint of something else. Sadness? Wisdom? Both?
I looked at her hand. Transparent. Shining. Impossible.
I hesitated only a second.
Then I took it.
It wasn't solid. Not in the normal way. My hand didn't grasp flesh or bones. It was like... dipping my fingers in warm water. Or in denser air. Or in light that had learned to have form.
I felt something. Not weight. Not temperature. But presence. Connection.
Proof that she was here. With me.
"Hello," I managed to say, and I didn't understand why tears were streaming down my face.
Aura smiled. More widely now. And in that smile I saw echoes of the child she had been. The one who played in the gardens. Who drew pictures of happy families. Who asked her father to tell her stories before sleeping.
"Finally I can walk with you," she said. "Not just whisper. Not just watch. But be here."
"How... how is this possible?"
"Your acceptance." She pointed to my chest with her free hand. "When you accepted being the Guardian. When you chose to fight. When you decided this was your path..."
She paused, searching for words.
"...you gave me an anchor. A point of connection between your world and... where I am. Strong enough to allow me to manifest. To take form."
"For how long?"
Her smile became sadder. "I don't know. As long as you remain strong. As long as you believe. As long as you keep going forward."
"And if I stop?"
"Then I'll fade again. Return to being just a voice. Just a whisper. Just..." she paused. "Alone."
I squeezed her hand tighter. As much as it was possible to squeeze something that was half air and half light.
"I won't leave you alone," I said. "Never again."
Her smile could have lit kingdoms.
"No," she said. "You won't."
"Then let's go," she said simply. "The crypts await us. And down there... down there there's something we must find."
I nodded.
And together - alive and dead, solid and ethereal, Guardian and spirit - we descended into the darkness.
✦ ✦ ✦
The stairs ended in a corridor.
But calling it a "corridor" was reductive. It was an underground cathedral. The ceiling was at least six meters high, lost in the darkness. The walls were ancient stone, covered with runes that began to glow faintly when we entered.
It wasn't the light in my hands making them illuminate. Or at least, not only that. It was also Aura. Her mere presence made the ancient symbols awaken, pulsing with slow rhythm like breathing.
"What do they say?" I asked, pointing to the runes.
Aura approached a wall. She touched the symbols with transparent fingers. They passed through the stone without resistance, but the runes glowed brighter at her touch.
"They are... names," she said quietly. "Names of Guardians. Those who came before. Before papa. Before you. Before... anyone remembers."
I looked more closely. Now that she said it, I could see the pattern. Each rune was different. Unique. Like signatures in a forgotten language.
"Are they all dead?" I asked.
"Yes. But... not forgotten. The crypts remember. Even when the world above forgets."
We continued walking. The corridor branched. Left. Right. Forward. A labyrinth of passages that seemed to extend in every direction.
But Aura didn't hesitate. She moved confidently, as if she knew every stone. Every turn.
"Have you been here before?" I asked.
"Yes. Papa brought me here. When I was... alive. He said that one day I would be a Guardian too. That I would need to know the secrets hidden beneath the palace."
"And did he show them to you?"
"Some. The simplest ones. He said I would learn the rest when I was older." Her smile cracked. "But I never got older."
I didn't know what to say to that. So I simply said: "I'm sorry."
"I know." She touched my hand again. Warm air. Tangible light. "But now I'm getting older in a different way. Through you. Through this journey. Not as I would have as alive. But... it's something."
We arrived at a fork. Three corridors branching off.
"Which way?" I asked.
Aura closed her eyes. She concentrated. Her form trembled slightly, becoming more transparent, then returning more solid.
"The middle one," she said, reopening her eyes. "I feel... something down there. Something that shines. Something golden."
"Another fragment?"
"Maybe. Or maybe something else. But either way... we must go."
✦ ✦ ✦
The central corridor descended further. Not stairs this time, but a gentle ramp. The walls here were different. Not covered with runes, but with scenes carved directly into the stone.
They showed... people? Guardians? Hard to say. The figures were stylized, almost abstract. But they told a story.
Here, a man holding a light high.
There, the same man fighting shadow creatures.
Further on, the man surrounded by others. Allies? Friends?
And in the last scene, the man standing before something large. Something with too many eyes. Too many limbs. Too... wrong to be portrayed clearly.
"What...?" I began.
"The First Guardian," Aura said. "Or at least, that's how papa told it. The one who sealed the Great Evil. The one who created the Seven Artifacts to maintain balance."
"And the Eighth?"
Her face became serious. "The Eighth wasn't created to seal. It was created for... something else."
"For what?"
"To weave. To change. To modify what is and create what should be." She turned to me. "It's a power that shouldn't be used. Because when you change one thing... you change everything. And not always in the way you hope."
I thought of Elias. Who had wanted to change one thing - his daughter's death. And ended up changing everything. Had transformed a golden kingdom into gray ash. Had turned people into statues. Had destroyed what he loved trying to save it.
"I understand," I said quietly.
We reached the end of the ramp.
And we both stopped, breathless.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was a hall.
No. Hall was too small a term.
It was a cathedral.
Circular. Enormous. The ceiling was so high it was lost in the darkness above. The walls were covered - every inch, every space - with glowing runes. Thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands. All pulsing with synchronized golden light.
Like a giant heart beating slowly.
At the center of the hall, five stone pedestals arranged in a perfect circle. On each pedestal, a luminous symbol. Numbers. Recognizable even though written in that ancient language.
And in the center of the circle of pedestals, raised on a higher platform, an altar of black stone. Empty. But with an impression on the surface. The shape of something that had been there. Something round. Something important.
"Wow," I whispered.
Aura smiled. "Papa called it the Chamber of the Firsts. Where the ancient Guardians meditated on the fundamental numbers. On the building blocks of reality."
I approached the pedestals. The numbers glowed brighter when I got closer, reacting to the light in my hands.
On the floor, between the pedestals, there was an inscription. Carved deeply into the stone in characters I could now almost read.
"Order the eternal sequence. Touch the infinity that has no end. Only then will the way open."
"A riddle," Aura said, reading over my shoulder.
"Prime numbers," I said, looking at the symbols. "2, 3, 5, 7, 11. They're all prime numbers."
"Yes. Papa taught them to me. He said they were special. That they continued infinitely without a predictable pattern. That they were... eternal."
"Eternal sequence," I repeated the inscription's words. "So the order is..."
"From smallest to largest?" Aura suggested.
It made sense. I looked at the pedestals. They were scattered randomly in the circle. Not in order. I had to figure out which to touch first.
I approached the pedestal with 2. The smallest number. The first prime number.
I hesitated only a second.
Then I touched the symbol.
Click.
The number glowed brighter. And I felt something move under my feet. Ancient mechanisms awakening after centuries of sleep.
"Continue," Aura said, her eyes luminous with excitement.
I touched 3.
Click.
Click.
Click.
And finally, 11.
CLICK.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, all five pedestals glowed in unison. The light rose from the symbols, projecting golden rays upward that met at the center, above the altar.
And where the rays intersected, something materialized.
It didn't appear suddenly. It wove into existence. As if it had always been there, hidden, waiting only to be revealed.
It was a fragment. Identical to the one I had found in Aura's room. A piece of pure gold shining with its own light. But larger. Perhaps the size of my fist.
It floated above the altar, rotating slowly.
"The second fragment," Aura whispered.
I approached. The fragment's light was warm. Inviting. Not threatening.
I reached out my hand.
My fingers touched the gold.
And the world changed.
✦ ✦ ✦
It wasn't a vision this time.
It was a memory.
Not mine. Someone else's. Of...
Master Elias.
I was in the same hall. But different. Not gray. Colored. Alive. The runes glowed in every hue of the rainbow instead of just dull gold.
And there, standing before the altar, was him.
Younger than when I had seen him in previous visions. Perhaps thirty. Dark hair without a trace of gray. Bright eyes shining with enthusiasm and knowledge.
And beside him...
Aura.
Not the spirit. But the real child. Alive. With pink cheeks and curious eyes and a smile that lit the entire room.
She must have been perhaps six years old. She held her father's hand with one hand. With the other she touched the pedestals, laughing each time the numbers glowed.
"Papa," she said in a voice full of wonder. "How do they shine?"
"Magic," Elias replied, smiling. "But not the magic of stories. Real magic. The magic of numbers. Of order. Of balance."
"Can I learn it?"
"One day. When you're older. When you've studied enough. When you've understood that numbers aren't just quantities. They are... entities. Living. With their own will."
Aura wrinkled her small nose. "Numbers have will?"
"Some believe so. I..." Elias stopped. He looked at the pedestals with a thoughtful expression. "I think maybe yes. That maybe everything in the universe has will. Even the smallest things. Even abstract concepts."
"Like love?"
Elias laughed. A warm sound. Genuine. Free from the weight I would see in him later.
"Yes, sweetheart. Like love."
Aura thought about that for a moment. Then asked: "Papa, if numbers have will... what do they want?"
The question seemed to strike Elias. He remained silent for a long time, looking at his daughter with an indecipherable expression.
Then, slowly, he said: "They want balance. They want everything to be in its place. They want the world to work as it should."
"And if the world doesn't work as it should?"
"Then..." Elias hesitated. "Then maybe the numbers find a way to fix it. Or maybe... they send someone to do it for them."
"Like a Guardian?"
"Yes. Like a Guardian."
Aura smiled. "Then when I'm big, I'll be a Guardian. And I'll help the numbers maintain balance!"
Elias looked at her. And in his eyes I saw something that broke my heart.
He knew.
Even then, even in that happy moment, he knew his daughter would never grow up. That he had already seen the shadow in her. That time was running out.
But he only said: "Yes, sweetheart. You'll be the best Guardian this kingdom has ever seen."
And he hugged her. Tight. As if he wanted to freeze that moment. Keep it forever.
The vision faded.
✦ ✦ ✦
I blinked. I was back in the gray hall. The fragment was warm in my hand.
I turned. Aura - the spirit - was staring at me with tears shining on her translucent face.
"I saw," she whispered. "I saw... that day. I remembered it but... seeing it again..."
I approached her. Without thinking, I tried to hug her.
My arms passed through her. Like hugging fog. But she moved closer anyway. Her form overlapping with mine. Not touching. But close enough to feel... something.
Heat. Connection. Presence.
"You would have been a great Guardian," I said.
She laughed through the tears. "I'm being one. Just... in a different way."
We separated. She wiped her eyes with hands that couldn't truly touch tears that weren't truly liquid.
"We have the second fragment," I said, raising the piece of gold.
"Yes. But..." she stopped. Her eyes widened. "Wait. Something's wrong."
"What?"
She didn't have to answer.
Because at that moment, I heard the noise.
A deep boom. Like stone moving. Like ancient mechanisms activating.
The hall's walls trembled. Dust fell from the invisible ceiling above.
And from the altar at the center - where the fragment had floated - something began to rise.
✦ ✦ ✦
It wasn't stone.
It looked like stone. It moved like stone. It sounded like stone when its massive limbs struck the floor.
But I felt it was something else.
It was... a guardian.
No. A Guardian. With a capital G.
At least three meters tall. Completely covered in armor that was fused with the body - impossible to tell where the metal ended and the flesh began. It carried a sword as wide as my body. Its eyes were slits in the visor, glowing with gray light.
And it was moving toward us.
Not fast. Each step was slow. Deliberate. Like an avalanche that's in no hurry because it knows it will reach its goal anyway.
"Back!" I shouted at Aura, pushing her behind me.
But she didn't move. Instead, her form trembled. The child became... something else.
Not completely. She maintained the humanoid shape. But the contours blurred. The light that composed her reorganized. Adapted.
And when it stabilized again, she was no longer just a transparent child.
She was a shield.
A disc of pure light that materialized before me. Large enough to cover us both. Pulsing with golden energy.
"Aura?!"
"I can adapt!" she said, the voice coming from the shield itself. "Remember? It's my power! I can be what's needed!"
The Guardian raised its sword.
And brought it down.
CRASH!
The impact was like thunder. The light shield vibrated but held. Golden sparks exploded in the air. I felt the shockwave through my whole body.
But the shield held.
"It can't hold forever!" I shouted. "I have to—"
"You attack!" Aura interrupted. "I defend! This is a team!"
The Guardian raised its sword again.
I didn't think. I didn't plan.
I acted.
While the blade descended - while Aura concentrated completely on maintaining the shield - I slid to the side. My hands glowed. Not just with passive light. But with active power.
I charged all the energy I could gather. Everything I had learned fighting the shadows. All the rage for this destroyed kingdom. All the pain for lost Aura. All the determination to finish this journey.
And I released it.
A ray of pure light exploded from my hands.
It struck the Guardian in the side.
✦ ✦ ✦
The creature screamed.
Not with a voice. Not like humans. But with the sound of bending metal. Of cracking stone. Of something ancient breaking.
It staggered. The sword fell from its arm. The armor where I had struck it glowed red.
But it didn't fall.
Instead, it turned toward me. Those gray eyes staring at me with... what? Anger? Pain? Or just purpose?
It charged.
"Aura!"
But she was already there. The light shield moved. No longer in front of me. But around me. Wrapping me in a protective barrier.
The Guardian struck with its fist. Massive. Inexorable.
BOOM!
The barrier trembled. A crack formed in the golden light.
"It can't—" Aura began.
"I know!" I shouted. "Change! Become something else!"
And she understood.
Aura's form transformed again. From shield to...
Chains.
Chains of pure light that exploded from the dying shield. They wrapped around the Guardian's arms. Legs. Torso.
The creature tried to break free. Pulled. Tore.
But the chains held.
"Now!" Aura shouted, her voice tense with effort. "I can't hold it long!"
I didn't hesitate.
I charged again. Every ounce of power I had. My hands glowed so bright I could barely look at them.
And I aimed not at the armor. Not at the body.
But at the eyes.
Where that gray light shone. Where, beneath all the metal and stone, there was still something... alive.
The ray struck full on.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Guardian froze.
Aura's chains dissolved. But the creature didn't move. It stood there, motionless, like a statue.
Then... slowly... it began to disintegrate.
Not violently. Not in an explosion. But gently. Like sand carried away by a gentle breeze.
First the armor. Then the body beneath. Then everything.
And as it dissolved, I saw a face.
Hidden beneath the visor. Hidden beneath the metal.
An old man. White hair. Long beard. Eyes that had been green, once, before the gray claimed them.
And he was... smiling?
With a voice that was wind through dead leaves, he whispered:
"Thank you... I was... trapped... centuries waiting... someone worthy... now... free..."
The last particles of golden dust floated in the air.
And then there was nothing left.
Just silence.
And two exhausted Guardians - one alive, one dead - breathing heavily in the ancient hall.
✦ ✦ ✦
Aura returned to her child form. She staggered. Almost fell.
I caught her before she touched the ground. Even though she had no weight. Even though my hand passed almost through her.
"Are you okay?"
"Tired," she whispered. "Using... the power... requires... energy..."
"Rest."
"I can't rest. Not really. But..." she leaned against me. Warm air. Light that had learned to have form. "...this helps."
We remained like that for a while. In the silent hall. Surrounded by runes that now glowed more faintly. As if they too were exhausted.
Finally, Aura straightened. Her form was less transparent now. More solid. As if fighting together had strengthened us both.
"We freed him," she said, looking where the Guardian had been.
"Who was he?"
"I don't know. But he was trapped here. As a guardian. As a sentinel. Protecting the fragment. For centuries. Maybe more."
"And when I took it..."
"...he awakened. To do what he was programmed for. Fight whoever tried to steal the treasure."
"But we weren't thieves."
"He couldn't know that. He was just... duty. Purpose. What remained of him after everything else had faded." She smiled sadly. "We freed him. And that's a good thing."
I looked at the two fragments I now held. Small pieces of gold pulsing with gentle warmth.
Two out of four in the Golden Kingdom.
Two out of... how many total? Twenty? Thirty? How many pieces had the Crown been shattered into?
"How many more do we need?" I asked.
"Many," Aura replied. "But not all are here. Some are in the other kingdoms. The Forest. The Mountains. The Ocean. The Tower."
"And in each one..."
"...there will be guardians. Riddles. Dangers." She looked at me with serious golden eyes. "This was just the beginning."
"I know."
"Are you afraid?"
I thought about the question. Really thought.
Was I afraid? Yes. Terrified. Of what awaited me. Of what I would have to face. Of the possibility of failing.
But I said: "Yes. But it doesn't matter."
"Why?"
I looked at Aura. This child who had died too young. Who had become a spirit to not leave her father. Who now walked with me on an impossible journey.
"Because I'm not alone," I said simply.
Her smile could have lit kingdoms.
"No," she said. "You're not."
✦ ✦ ✦
We ascended from the crypts as something that could be dawn - or perhaps just a lightening of the eternal gray - began to filter from above.
We crossed the library. Past Elias's diary still open on the table. Past the shelves full of forgotten knowledge.
Up the stairs. Through the palace corridors. Past Aura's room where the twin teddy bear still lay on the bed.
Through the Throne Room where the frescoes told the story we now knew too well.
And finally, outside.
Into the courtyard.
The air - if it could be called air in a world without wind - seemed different. Less oppressive. As if each fragment recovered lightened the weight of the curse a little.
Aura walked beside me. Transparent. Ethereal. But present. More real than she could have seemed possible.
We crossed the courtyard where the Stone Guardian remained motionless. I stopped for a moment before him.
"We found two fragments," I said to the silent statue. "As promised. We'll continue. We'll find them all. And we'll fix what was broken."
I knew he couldn't hear me. But it seemed right to say it anyway.
We continued.
Past the gardens where the children's statues still played their frozen games.
Past the fountain where I had found Aura's teddy bear.
To the outer walls of the palace.
And beyond.
✦ ✦ ✦
We stopped at the edge where the palace ended and the kingdom extended.
Before us, the gray fields. Acres of land that once grew golden wheat. Now just ash and dust.
Beyond the fields, the ruins of what had been the city. Collapsed houses. Broken streets. Towers that stood like broken teeth against the gray sky.
And beyond the city...
Trees.
Thousands. Tens of thousands. Perhaps millions.
A forest that extended to the horizon in every direction.
Even from this distance - kilometers - I could see they were dead. Petrified like everything else. Gray trunks. Broken branches. No leaves.
But they were also... something else.
There was a presence in that forest. Something that called. That whispered. That waited.
"The Emerald Forest," Aura said quietly.
"Emerald?" I looked at the gray expanse. "I don't see anything green."
"Not now. But it was. Before papa... before all this."
"And there..." I hesitated. "There's someone?"
She nodded. "Yes. Someone who sleeps. Someone trapped in a dream that never ends. Someone who..." she stopped. "Someone who could help us. If we manage to wake him."
"Another ally?"
"Maybe. If we're lucky. If we're worthy."
I looked at the forest. Then I looked at Aura.
"Together," I said.
"Together," she replied.
And we set off.
Away from the palace. Away from the Golden Kingdom. Away from everything we knew.
Toward the Emerald Forest.
Toward the next kingdom.
Toward the next ally.
Toward whatever awaited us.
The two fragments pulsed warm in my pockets. Aura's teddy bear rested safe beside them. And Aura herself walked at my side - no longer a whisper, no longer a shadow, but a companion.
Ally.
Friend.
One step at a time, we crossed the gray fields.
And behind us, the Golden Kingdom waited in silence.
Waited for us to return.
Waited to be saved.
Waited for the light.
END OF CHAPTER 5 END OF CODE 2001
Continues in Chapter 6: "Green Border" Complete Levels 6-10 to unlock Code 2002 unlocks Chap 6-10