Arthur and the squad were still catching their breath after the last collapse; the last thing they heard was the screaming of Caelum as he was being swallowed by the collapsing hall.

Their bodies were covered in dust and dirt as they let out a few heavy coughs while dusting away the dirt on themselves.

Before they could even react, what appeared before them was a huge stone door.

It's not just any kind of stone door. This stone door is a truly massive gate seemingly carved from a single colossal block, its surface so unnaturally smooth that it gleamed like polished obsidian under the flickering lamplight.

There are no cracks marring it, nor inscriptions or glyphs carved upon it.

But one thing stands out on this massive stone door.

It's a puzzle.

A wall of countless little cubes, stone fragments arranged in an intricate grid, each marked with strange notches and carvings: some angular, others circular.

These small cubes didn't align with any known alphabet or glyph; at first glance, they seemed like meaningless scratches scattered across chaos.

Arthur and the others hesitated, cautious as they looked at the stone walls; none of them dared to move to approach the door.

"Secure the perimeter," Gunner immediately commanded, his voice breaking through the tense silence.

"Yes, sir!" Several soldiers shouted in unison, as they immediately spread out, their boots crunching against the dust-covered floor as they swept their scopes across the chamber.

Ethan just found a broken pillar and leaned against it, his visor tucked under one arm and eyes downcast.

The usual mocking grin had vanished; exhaustion weighed heavily on his shoulders as he pressed his lips into a tight line.

"Sir, the area is clear!" The soldiers immediately reported back.

The archaeologists, without wasting time, walked toward the door.

Professor Adrian, Dr. Ren, and others approached the door.

Each one of them carried notes filled with every scrap of knowledge they could muster, but as they stood before this stone puzzle, flipping through worn pages and whispering theories among themselves, frustration etched itself on their faces.

"There is nothing," Adrian muttered after several long minutes, exasperation tugging at the corners of his lips as he traced over the tiny cubes with trembling fingers brushing against cold stone.

"No reference point! No pattern recorded in Azurian codices or Sarvahn ruins! Not even parallels in pre-Empire glyph work!"

Dr. Ren also shook his head, his eyes narrowing behind cracked spectacles.

"It's… alien to everything we know. There's no correlation. This is beyond anything the Empire ever recorded."

This ignited another round of debate among them as their voices echoed in the place.

"This angle, look at it; it's almost like a crown..."

"No, the spacing is too uneven. That's chaos, not order..."

"Perhaps rotational symmetry? What if the pattern shifts..."

"Don't be absurd! The friction alone would..."

They continued to argue fervently among themselves, with spit flying everywhere.

Behind them, the soldiers looked at them arguing; although their expressions were quite serious, the sorrow in each one of their eyes could not be hidden.

Arthur stood at the back of the archaeologists' circle with his arms crossed, his gaze locked on the puzzle before him.

His brow furrowed deeply; something about this puzzle tugged at him. He had a feeling that he had seen this kind of puzzle before.

He rubbed his chin and stepped a bit closer.

Time passed as three minutes went by… then five… nearly ten. His eyes were glued to the puzzle; he just stood there without moving, his eyes unblinking.

The symbols on the small cubes really gave him a familiar feeling.

Just then, something seemed to click in his mind as a single thought flashed through his mind.

The moment that thought appeared, he couldn't shake it off; his eyes were wide, and deep shock and astonishment flashed in them.

His breathing became rough as his fingers trembled. "No... no... this can't be possible... it's impossible... I'm sure I'm the only one here...".

His breath continued to quicken as he slowly took a step forward.

The archaeologists paused mid-argument, startled into silence as Arthur brushed past them.

All of them looked at Arthur in confusion as they gave each other quick glances before turning back to look at Arthur. Ignoring them completely,

Arthur pressed his palm against the cold stone of the puzzle; the rough edges felt alive under his fingers as they found notches and grooves between the cubes.

One piece shifted.

Click!

Arthur's eyes widened; instinct took over, not thought or reason.

He twisted and slid the cubes along their tracks until each one fell into place with heavy clicks that reverberated through their surroundings.

The others watched in silence as these cubes started to come together; meaningless scratches curved into arcs, lines fused into symmetry, jagged symbols found their compatible ones and locked together seamlessly.

The wall was transforming under Arthur's hands as time passed by.

Minutes slipped by while sweat trickled down his temple; urgency propelled him faster now, each click more desperate than before.

Click! Click! Click!

A full one hour later, with a final snap, the final piece settled into place. Silence immediately enveloped their surroundings.

The archaeologists leaned in, eyes wide with wonder.

A crown... yes, the thing that appeared after all the cubes came together was a crown.

But not just any crown; this was a crown that seemed to be interwoven in arcs resembling leaves or thorns that rose from its rim, jagged yet regal, each curve slicing into the next.

Arthur just stood there and stared at it, his breath hitching in his throat.

Cold shivers ran down his spine. He recognized this crown, not from Panterra or any dusty records, but from somewhere else entirely.

A place he could never confess to the others.

His mouth opened and closed, open and then closed again; he was simply too shocked to speak.

Behind him, Adrian's voice broke through the tension. "It looks… like a crown."

Ren adjusted his glasses, speaking in hushed tones. "Or leaves? A crown of woven leaves? Strange… None of our empires ever used such symbolism."

Murmurs of awe and confusion rippled through the group as they speculated on the meaning behind this mysterious crown symbol.

Arthur remained silent, his gaze still locked onto the crown, eyes hollow as his heart kept pounding wildly in his chest. Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath them.

A low growl reverberated through their surroundings. The stone door shook violently as it let out a loud groan.

"Back!" Gunner shouted, raising his weapon high as his men instinctively pulled back, rifles aimed and ready for anything.

With a thunderous crack, the stone split down the middle; pebbles and shards tumbled as if giants were hammering below them!

The stone door slowly parted on both sides, revealing an entrance covered in thick dust. This immediately pulled Arthur back from his reverie as he let out loud coughs.

He looked at the entrance in front of him as he tried to calm himself down, but the trembling of his fingers said otherwise.

He let out a deep breath and then waved his hand to signal the rest, "Let's go in!"

He took a step forward as the others quickly followed.

The archaeologists hurried after him, their eyes filled with curiosity and excitement.

When their eyes adjusted and they saw what was presented in front of their eyes, they were stunned speechless, rooted on the spot like statues, their mouths hanging wide open.

"Holy shit…"

Ethan's voice echoed across the surroundings.

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