The blue light of the gate pulsed before her. Warm. Inviting. The way forward.
Lilith took a step toward it.
The ground shook.
Not a tremor. A full, violent heave. The broken stones of the coliseum floor cracked further. Dust rose in choking clouds.
She stopped. Turned.
From beneath the arena, something rose.
It was massive. Larger than the Chimera. Larger than anything she had faced.
The stones bulged upward. Cracks spread like spiderwebs. Then, with a deafening crash, the center of the floor exploded outward.
The creature emerged.
It was a Titan Wurm. A serpent of stone and bone. Its body was longer than five wagons lined end to end. Segmented plates of rock armor covered its form. Hundreds of legs, each one a curved blade of obsidian, scrabbled at the broken stone. Its head was a nightmare. A circular maw ringed with spiraling rows of teeth. No eyes. It did not need them. It sensed everything through the ground.
