"Are you prepared to pay the price for your salvation, or will you end your journey here in the dark?"
Rea stood paralyzed in the center of the subterranean chamber, the voice echoing off the damp, moss-covered walls. It was not Zeldin’s cold, precise cadence, nor was it the desperate rasp of the broken Giska. This voice was synthesized, layered with an unsettling harmonic distortion that made her teeth ache. She stared at the terminal, the screen pulsing with an rhythmic amber light that seemed to mirror a heartbeat. She was miles beneath the city, stripped of her status, her wealth, and her dignity. She had nowhere left to run, and the abyss was finally asking for its payment.
"I have nothing left to give," Rea shouted into the gloom, her voice trembling but defiant. "You have taken
