The air around Nathaniel felt suffocating, thick with dread as the darkness pressed against his chest, a tangible force that seemed to push him deeper into the bowels of the earth. The shadows that had once felt so distant now felt as though they were alive, swirling around him, whispering things he couldn’t fully understand—things that didn’t belong in the world he knew.
He was trapped. There was no way out, no escape from the clutches of this ancient force that had been unleashed. The room itself seemed to pulse, alive with an unnatural rhythm, like a heart beating in the dark. The ground beneath him felt unstable, shifting, as though the earth itself was crumbling away.
His pulse thundered in his ears, his breathing shallow as he backed away from the altar. His mind was reeling, tryin
