Chapter 31 Final Offer

• THE HIDDEN TEMPLE, once a place of mystery and ancient power, now felt like a gilded cage, holding the secret to their potential salvation, or their inevitable doom.
• They spent days immersed in the temple's archives, the brittle scrolls and stone tablets their only companions, aside from the Oracle’s silent, watchful presence. Selene, driven by a furious urgency, pushed her magical senses to their limits, translating fragments, feeling for resonances, trying to piece together the forgotten ritual.
• Waldemar, though unable to read the ancient script, acted as her anchor, his formidable mind sifting through her fragmented insights, questioning, probing, trying to find logical patterns in the magical chaos. Their shared desperation forged an even deeper, more fragile intimacy between them, a bond born of vulnerability and a terrifying, mutual reliance.