Above them, the city in the Duskwight Lands continued to burn. But not a single root dared cross the invisible boundary surrounding the newly revealed entrance.
The staircase felt endless.
Step after step, the outside light vanished completely, devoured by the dark. There were no torches, no runes etched into the walls, no trace of any ancient lighting system.
Just a small sphere of light floating ahead of them. Conjured shyly by Lily with a flick of her wand.
It hovered about a meter off the ground, casting a soft glow that revealed walls carved with almost surgical precision. Not the work of a primitive tribe. Nor that of a mere Soulmancer.
This was… something else.
The deeper they went, the more Lily felt the world above slipping away.
The screams. The explosions. The rumble of the roots.
All of it dulled. Then vanished.
Not gradually.
Abruptly. As if someone had shut an invisible door between two separate realities.
Lily shivered.
"You felt that too…?"
