The entity's screech reached a deafening pitch as its form was finally pulled into the altar's light. For a moment, the entire cave seemed to explode with energy, the walls shaking and the ground cracking beneath their feet. Emily, Marcus, and Sarah were thrown to the ground as the light flared brighter and brighter, until it was blinding.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the light dimmed.
Silence fell over the cave.
The fissures in the ground sealed themselves, and the air grew still. The creature was gone, its presence erased from the chamber as though it had never existed.
Emily sat up slowly, her body aching, her mind reeling from the intensity of what had just happened. The cave felt different now—empty, hollow, as if the malevolent force that had once permeated it was no longer there.
Marcus helped Sarah to her feet, his face pale but relieved. "Did we... did we do it?"
Emily nodded, her heart still pounding in her chest. "We did. It's over."
But as they gathered themselves and prepared to leave, Emily couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed. The cave had been a prison for the entity, and now that prison had been sealed once more. But at what cost?
As they made their way back through the winding tunnels, Emily glanced over her shoulder, a chill running down her spine. The whispers had stopped, but the memory of them lingered. The entity was sealed, but its hunger remained—a hunger that would never truly be sated.
They had survived, but the Hollowed Earth had claimed a part of them.