The "clear path" to the Central Prism was anything but safe. Now that the Mirror-Maze was gone, the raw geometry of the Glasswoods revealed itself—a vertical landscape of jagged cliffs and crystalline ravines. The smooth data-feed in Zeth's mind wasn't a cheat code; it was just a sharper lens. He still had to do the climbing, the scouting, and the fighting.
"The resonance in the floor is changing," Zeth said, stopping at a junction of three glass bridges. "The Porygon's removal didn't just drop the walls; it triggered a 'System Flush.' The energy that was powering the maze is being redirected somewhere else."
Aria looked at her Gabite, which was sniffing a cluster of glowing, cubic rocks. "Redirected where? Back to the Magnezone?"
"Deeper," Zeth replied. He focused, his internal interface filtering through the noise. It wasn't giving him a map; it was giving him a signal. A faint, rhythmic hum—the sound of high-purity minerals. "There's a concentration of refined energy about five hundred yards down this ravine. It feels different from the trees. It's dense. Stored."
The ravine was a vertical drop of nearly sixty feet. The Rhyhorn couldn't make the descent, so they tethered it to a hexagonal pillar, leaving it guarded by Koji and his Swellow. Zeth and Aria began the grueling climb down.
The glass here was slick and sharp. Zeth had to hammer iron pitons into the silicate walls just to get a foothold. His hands were raw, the "grind" of the environment testing every muscle. The system in his mind flickered with alerts—level readings of distant Pokémon, environmental heat signatures—but it didn't do the climbing for him.
"Look," Aria whispered, pointing to a ledge halfway down.
Embedded in the wall was a "Vault"—a natural pocket of high-pressure quartz that had been used by the local Pokémon to store items attracted by the Prism's magnetic draw. It was a scavenger's dream, but it was guarded.
A pair of Lairon (Lvl 38-40) stood watch, their steel armor clashing against the glass as they paced the ledge. They were gnawing on the edges of the vault, their digestive systems processing the high-grade minerals to reinforce their hides.
"We can't use fire," Zeth muttered, checking his position. "The thermal shock would shatter the ledge we're standing on. We do this the old-fashioned way."
Zeth signaled Croagunk. The frog slipped into the shadows of the glass, moving like a blur of purple. While the Lairon were distracted by a pebble Zeth tossed to the far side of the ledge, Croagunk struck with a precision Low Kick, targeting the heavy Pokémon's center of gravity.
As the Lairon stumbled, Zeth swung down on a rope, slamming his boot into the creature's side to keep it away from the vault opening. It was a messy, physical brawl. No system-boosted stats, just raw timing and leverage.
After five minutes of brutal grappling and territorial hissing, the Lairon—realizing the "intruders" weren't worth the effort—retreated into a deeper tunnel.
Zeth wiped the sweat and glass dust from his brow and pried open the quartz pocket. His mental interface flickered as it analyzed the loot, categorizing the items based on the tiers he had painstakingly memorized.
[Vault Resources Identified:]
1x Grand-Mastered Sun Stone: A high-purity catalyst pulsing with immense solar energy. Unlike standard market fare, this stone has the potential to trigger minor Potential jumps in the right Pokémon.
Refined Hard-Stones (Advanced Tier): These stones haven't just been found; they've been refined by the Gate's pressure. They can stabilize growth and are far superior to the Terrible-tier stones found on the surface.
Silicon-Fiber Silk: A high-purity energy-conductive material.
"A Grand-Mastered Sun Stone?" Aria asked, her eyes widening as she felt the heat radiating from the amber gem. "Zeth, that's a high-purity catalyst. That could fetch a fortune from a League-high member, or trigger a massive jump for a Grass or Fire type."
"It's not for trading," Zeth said, bagging the silk and the stones. "In a world this unstable, we keep the catalysts that can force growth. We might need to trigger an evolution in the middle of a fight just to stay alive."
Zeth looked up at the climb they still had to finish. His body ached, and his breathing was heavy. The "System" in his head showed the Porygon's data-link was stable, but it didn't stop the fatigue.
"We're not just finding treasure, Aria," Zeth said, testing the next piton. "We're gathering the parts to build something that can actually kill a Magnezone. And every scrap of silk and stone we find is one more percent toward surviving the core."
He looked toward the Central Prism, which was now towering above them, its rotating lenses casting long, distorted beams of light across the forest.
"We have the materials. Now we find the 'Workbench' at the heart of the Prism."
-----------
The entrance to the Core Chamber wasn't a door, but a massive, circular aperture at the base of the Central Prism. As Zeth and Aria approached, the air didn't just vibrate—it screamed with the sound of compressed energy. The "Light Streams," thick ribbons of solid photons, flowed through the air like rivers of liquid neon, all converging into a central pillar that shot upward toward the Warden's sanctum.
"The thermal readings are off the charts," Zeth muttered, his breathing heavy as the dry, ionized air parched his throat. He looked at the floor. The glass was so hot it was becoming viscous, threatening to trap their boots in a semi-molten grip.
"We can't walk through those streams, Zeth," Aria said, her face flushed from the heat. "If a single one touches us, it'll strip the skin right off our bones. Even my Gabite is backing away."
Zeth didn't panic. He knelt and opened his pack, pulling out the Silicon-Fiber Silk they had fought the Lairon for. This wasn't just a material; in this environment, it was their only lifeline.
Zeth didn't have a workbench, so he used the jagged edge of a glass pillar. He began to braid the silicon silk with the copper wiring salvaged from the SS Anne. It was a tedious, finger-bleeding grind. He wasn't using the System to build it; he was using his own hands, calloused and shaking from the climb.
"What are you making?" Aria asked, guarding the entrance as a few stray Magnemite circled the ceiling.
"An Insulated Bridge," Zeth grunted, pulling a knot tight. "Silicon fiber is the only thing in this Gate that can conduct this much energy without melting. If I can weave a web across the streams, we can crawl over the 'Dead-Zones' where the heat is lower."
[The Grind: Crafting Progress]
Time Elapsed: 4 Hours.
Physical Toll: Minor burns, finger lacerations.
Result: 20 feet of High-Density Conductive Cable.
He handed one end of the cable to Croagunk. "Get this to the anchor point on the far side. Avoid the blue light; only touch the white-glass pillars."
The "bridge" was a single, swaying line of silver silk suspended over a roaring river of raw Gate-energy. Below them, the Light Streams churned like a waterfall of fire.
"I'll go first to test the tension," Zeth said. He didn't look down. He hooked his carabiners—scavenged from the ship's rigging—onto the silk line and began to pull himself across, hand-over-hand.
Midway across, a Light Stream flared. A surge of energy hissed up the cable, turning the silicon fiber a brilliant, blinding white. Zeth felt the heat through his gloves, a searing pain that made him want to let go. His System flickered with a red alert: [Integrity Critical: High Thermal Load].
He ignored it. He bit his lip until it bled, focusing only on the next grip. This was the reality of the Gate: the system could tell him he was dying, but it couldn't move his arms for him.
"Almost... there," he wheezed, his boots finally touching the solid quartz of the central dais.
Aria followed, her Gabite clinging to her back. When they finally stood on the center platform, they were both drenched in sweat and covered in soot, but they had reached the Heart of the Lens.
The chamber was silent, save for the hum of the light. In the center sat a terminal—not a digital computer, but a biological interface of quartz and pulsing veins.
"Look at the projection," Aria whispered.
Hovering above the terminal was a three-dimensional map of the Iron-Link Ravine. Zeth could see the SS Anne, a tiny speck of grey on the Obsidian Ledge. But more importantly, he saw the Red Zones—areas where the Gate was destabilizing.
The Magnezone wasn't just hoarding energy; it was trying to patch a "Catastrophic Breach" at the very bottom of the Spore-Sea.
"It's not just the island that's failing," Zeth said, his eyes scanning the data-readouts his system was now translating with Data-Zero's help. "The entire C-Rank Gate is being sucked into a lower dimension. The Magnezone is using the Glasswoods to 'anchor' the reality."
Suddenly, the terminal pulsed. A message, written in the blocky, ancient script of the Gate, appeared:
[CONTRIBUTION REQUIRED: 50,000 UNITS OF REFINED STEEL OR 1 LIFE-FORCE ANCHOR]
"It's not a tax anymore," Zeth realized, his face darkening. "It's an ultimatum. The Warden is going to sacrifice the ship to save the Gate."
He looked at the Grand-Mastered Sun Stone in his pack, then at the terminal. He could use the stone to temporarily stabilize the core, or he could use it to boost his Pokémon for the fight that was now inevitable.
"We aren't paying," Zeth said, his hand resting on the terminal. "Data-Zero, initiate a System Feedback. If the Warden wants a sacrifice, he can start with his own Lens."