Hong Min and 404 left the silent forge behind them, along with Arda's body and his memories. Hong Min walked in silence, still feeling a tightness in his chest, the image of the happy king hugging his salamander friend refusing to leave his mind. They found another service corridor they hadn't noticed before, from which clean, cool air was flowing. Curiosity led them inside.

  The corridor opened into another vast cavern, but this one was completely different. The place was clean, clinical, and illuminated by a calm blue light emanating from a giant energy core in the center of the cavern. This core was a massive crystal, the size of a house, floating above a metal base and pulsing slowly, sending thick pipes and cables in every direction like the arteries of a mechanical mountain.

  Hong Min noticed that the largest of these pipes extended into an adjacent room. He followed it, entering through an open stone archway. The room was smaller and darker, and in its center was only one thing: a massive glass box, resembling a coffin, but it was shattered. Shards of thick glass were scattered on the floor, and its interior was empty, just torn wires and the residue of a dried liquid. It was clear that whatever had been in here was either never completed, or it had escaped.

  They returned to the energy core room. This time, Hong Min noticed something else: a small control room with a cracked glass wall, overlooking the pulsing crystal. He pushed the open door and entered.

  The room was filled with dust, and the control panels were silent and dead. On a chair in front of one of the large screens sat the skeleton of a dwarf, his head bowed to his chest. His bony right hand was still resting on the control panel, and right beside it lay a small metal device with a screen.

  Hong Min picked it up cautiously. It was the same type of recording device he had found before, but this one was newer, its screen larger. He wiped the dust off it and pressed the power button. The screen lit up with a faint blue light.

  A familiar face appeared on the screen. It was "Leo," Arda's dwarf friend, but he looked younger and more vibrant, wearing a clean, white lab coat. He was smiling with excitement. "Log number 34. We did it! We finally managed to stabilize the energy output from the core. We are now ready for phase two: activating the vessel."

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  Driven by a painful curiosity, Hong Min swiped his finger across the screen, fast-forwarding through the clips. He saw flashes of Leo's life: shots of him working, him laughing, then later shots of him looking tired, with dark circles under his eyes. The lab behind him had become chaotic.

  Hong Min stopped at the last video. The title was "Final Log." He pressed it.

  Leo's face appeared on the screen. He was broken. His hair was disheveled, his eyes empty of any life. He was sitting in this very same control room.

  "The revival process of the first and last magic swordsman... is almost complete," he said in a hoarse, desperate voice. "But... what's the point? What's the point of finishing it?"

  He looked directly at the camera, as if looking at Hong Min across time. "Everything is destroyed. The city, the project... My mother is dead... my father is dead... Everyone is dead..."

  He let out a desperate laugh. "The outside... hah. We dream of the outside. Why did we even dream of leaving in the first place? It was the King... the King was right. He was right all along."

  Silence fell for a moment, then he whispered, tears streaming down his face. "There's no one left but me and Arda. I'm sorry, Arda... I'm truly sorry. We should have listened to you. You knew what we were doing was wrong..."

  He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry again. I'm leaving you alone. I can't... I can't live with this burden. I just can't."

  He looked at the camera one last time with a broken smile. "I love you, my peaceful Arda."

  He reached out and grabbed a sharp, scalpel-like tool from the table. He turned the camera slightly away from himself, and then Hong Min heard the sound of something falling to the floor.

  But the recording didn't stop.

  After moments of absolute silence, Arda's worried voice was heard from off-camera. "Leo? Where are you, Leo?"

  Arda entered the room. He saw his friend on the floor. He froze for a moment, then rushed toward him. "Leo! What are you doing, you fool?! Get up! Come on, get up!" He was shaking him gently, but Leo's body was limp.

  Arda realized the truth. There was no anger in his voice, only pure, absolute pain.

  "Leo... you know... you know I'm a salamander..." he said in a choked voice. "I can't cry... I can't cry!"

  Then he let out a roar. It wasn't the roar of a monster, but the scream of a soul being torn apart. A scream filled with all the tears he could never shed. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?! WHYYYYYY?!"

  Hong Min couldn't take it anymore.

  He threw the device hard onto the floor, and it shattered into pieces. He fell to his hands and knees and began to vomit violently, purging all the horror, pain, and sorrow he had just witnessed.

  404 stood beside him, an unmoving stone statue.

  "Vital functions are unstable," he said with his usual coolness. "Do you require a rest period?"

  Hong Min collapsed to the floor, panting, as the screen of the shattered device flickered one last time on Arda's silently screaming face, before going dark forever.