The corridor stretched endlessly, the flickering torchlight from behind unable to chase away the darkness ahead. Kael pressed forward, his breaths measured, his knife gripped tight. The silence was thick, yet he felt watched—an unseen presence pressing against his thoughts.
Then, the corridor split.
Two paths yawned before him. The left sloped downward, a suffocating void beyond its threshold. The right shimmered faintly, as though a mirage wavered over the stones. Kael exhaled sharply. There was no way to tell which path led forward—or if either did.
A whisper curled through the air.
"Choose."
Kael spun, knife raised, but the corridor behind him was empty. The dead man he had encountered was gone, no trace of his body left on the cold stone.
The walls pulsed.
Something was alive here. Watching.
Kael's grip tightened. Turning back wasn't an option. He stepped toward the right path, drawn to the faint shimmer. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the world twisted.
The walls became liquid shadow, melting away. Kael stumbled, dizziness crashing over him. Then he was falling—
—and then he was standing.
A new corridor stretched ahead, impossibly different. The air here was heavier, thick with the scent of damp earth and decay. The walls no longer smooth, but jagged, organic. The floor pulsed beneath his boots like the faint throb of a heartbeat.
Movement.
Kael crouched, his knife steady. Shapes flickered at the edges of the gloom. Not human. Not entirely.
A low, guttural sound reverberated through the corridor.
Kael's instincts screamed at him to move. He darted forward, weaving between shadowed alcoves as the sound grew closer. His pulse thundered in his ears. He didn't look back.
A doorway appeared at the end of the corridor, framed by carvings that seemed to shift as he approached. Symbols he couldn't decipher yet somehow understood—warnings. Pleas.
The guttural noise became a growl.
Kael lunged through the doorway, rolling into the next chamber just as something heavy slammed into the stone behind him. He spun, breath ragged.
The corridor was gone. Only a solid wall remained where the entrance had been.
Trapped.
Kael exhaled, steadying himself. He had expected danger, but this place was something else. The Black Maw was more than a place. It was alive.
And it was only just beginning its trial.