The corridor narrowed, walls slick with condensation, veins of glowing roots pulsing like buried arteries. The air thickened with every step, pressing down on Kael's shoulders like a living weight. The distant heartbeat from before was no longer distant - it shook the ground now, vibrating through their bones.
Selene sucked in a shallow breath. "This is really level zero?"
Kael didn't answer. His throat was too dry, his nerves alight with something worse than fear - anticipation. Something ahead was waiting. Watching.
Then the tunnel opened.
A vast, spherical chamber yawned before them, its curved walls studded with jagged platforms like the ribs of a long-dead beast. At the center stood a dais, its surface throbbing with a slow, rhythmic light - breathing.
And then the monsters came.
They spilled from cracks in the stone, from patches of unnatural shadow, Some skittered on too many limbs, their bodies glistening with mucus. Others dragged themselves forward on twisted, half-formed legs, their backs armored in jagged bone.
"Back to back," Selene hissed, blades already drawn.
Kael fell into place beside her, sword raised. Ten creatures circled the first ring. More clambered behind them. His muscles screamed from the last trial, but there was no time to rest.
The first wave struck.
A clawed beast lunged, jaws unhinging to reveal spiraled teeth. Kael dropped low, felt the wind of its swipe pass over his head, and drove his blade up through its belly. Foul-smelling viscera splashed across his chest, hot as coals. Another pounced - Selene spun beneath it, steel flashing. A clean decapitation. The head hit the ground before the body.
They moved like a single entity - Kael's heavy slashes carving openings, Selene's daggers darting in like silver lightning. A beast with a stone-plated skull charged; Kael sidestepped, hooked its ankle with his foot, and slammed his pommel into its spine as it stumbled. Selene finished it with a stab through the eye.
But the monsters kept coming.
Kael's left arm burned where claws had ripped through his bracer. Blood slicked his grip. Selene was favoring her right leg, a jagged spike having grazed her thigh. Still, they fought. Minutes blurred. The chamber stank of iron and rot.
Finally, the tide slowed. Only a handful of creatures remained.
Then the chamber shuddered.
A final wave emerged - slower, heavier. These were different: larger, their bodies fused with jagged stone, their movements deliberate. One dragged itself forward on a single massive arm, its mouth gurgling a wet, chanting noise. Another stood on spindly legs, its eyes glowing with hateful blue light.
Selene wiped sweat from her brow. "I'm almost out."
Kael nodded, his sword arm trembling. No words were needed.
The next clash was brutal. A stone-clad beast swung a wrecking-ball fist; Kael ducked, felt the shockwave of air as it missed, and rammed his blade through its throat. It didn't die - it yanked itself forward along the steel, teeth gnashing, until he kicked its chest and wrenched the sword free in a spray of black blood.
Selene wasn't faring better. A creature backhanded her into the wall. She hit hard, crumpling, but rolled up just in time to meet its charge. At the last second, she dropped, sliding between its legs and stabbing upward into its groin. It howled, collapsing ,just as another monster's spiked tail whipped around, catching Kael across the ribs. He staggered, tasted copper. Something cracked. A rib, maybe two.
The chamber pulsed again - harder. The dais at the center split open with a sound like shattering glass.
The thing that rose dwarfed the others.
Twice the height of a man, its body was stitched together from slabs of muscle and translucent bone. Chains hung from its arms like broken manacles. Where its face should have been floated a single red orb, pulsing in time with the chamber's heartbeat.
Its presence wasn't just physical - it pressed against their minds, a suffocating weight.
Kael spat blood. "That's the source."
The creature moved.
One second it was on the dais - the next, it was there, a chained fist crashing down where Kael had stood half a breath earlier. Stone shattered. Selene darted in, dagger aimed for the back of its knee.
The blade glanced off bone. The creature backhanded her without even looking. She flew, hit the ground hard, and didn't get up.
Kael charged.
He feinted left, then rolled right as a chain whipped past his ear. Close enough to feel the rust on the iron. He drove his sword into the creature's thigh
crack,
The blade lodged deep. The monster roared, more in annoyance than pain, and kicked. Kael's world upended. He hit the wall, vision swimming, ribs on fire.
Selene stirred. Groaned. Dragged herself up.
The creature turned toward her.
Kael forced himself onto his elbows. His sword was still embedded in the thing's leg. Useless.
Selene met his gaze. Nodded once.
Then she ran - not away, but at the monster.
It swung. She dropped, sliding beneath the chains, and jammed her last dagger into the back of its knee. A joint. A weak point.
The creature stumbled.
Kael moved.
He lunged, grabbed the hilt of his still-embedded sword, and wrenched it sideways with all his weight. Bone splintered. The monster reeled - Selene's boot slammed into its other knee.
It fell.
Kael didn't hesitate. He ripped his blade free and brought it down in a two-handed arc, shearing through the creature's collarbone. The steel snapped.
Selene was already moving, driving her broken dagger into its chest.
The red orb in its head pulsed - once, twice
then shattered.
Light erupted. A shockwave hurled them both backward. Kael hit the ground, skidded, and blacked out.
When he came to, the chamber was silent.
The orb was gone. The dais was dark.
Selene lay a few feet away, her breathing shallow, one leg bent wrong. Kael crawled to her, every movement sending knives through his ribs.
He touched her cheek.
Her eyes fluttered open.
"Hey," he croaked. "We made it."
She didn't speak. Just nodded once, exhausted.
The wounds would linger.
But they were alive.