Noah ascended the stairs from the second floor, his victory on the previous level still tingling with adrenaline. The air on this new floor felt stagnant, heavy with a silence even more oppressive than the dankness below. It was a silence broken only by the faint drip of water somewhere in the distance.
As he stepped out onto the third floor, a wave of nausea washed over him.
''Ugh! How unpleasant.''
The stench hit him first – a putrid mix of rotting flesh and something unnaturally sweet, like decaying flowers. He squinted through the dim glow emanating from Nemesis, his eyes struggling to adjust to the gloom.
The first thing that registered was the unnatural stillness. Gone were the damp walls and bioluminescent fungi that had characterized the previous floors. Here, the walls were rough-hewn stone, stained an unnatural black that seemed to absorb even the meager light from his blade.
