A suffocating aura weighed on every breath as Aria crept along the dank corridor, torchlight dancing across the slick stone. Far behind her, the echo of distant screams and violent scuffles reverberated through the twisting catacombs. Yet here, in the bowels of the ancient ruin, an even deeper malevolence pulsed beneath the surface—an oppressive thrum that sapped her strength with every step.
She pressed a trembling hand against the cold wall, forcing her exhausted limbs onward. Blood from earlier wounds crusted on her forearm, her cloak torn and spattered in the gore of half-realized monstrosities she had fought or fled. Each heartbeat hammered in her ears, urging caution, yet she couldn’t turn back. The rogue mentor—Silas—had to be stopped.
Emerging at last into a vast, dome-like chamb
