The tunnels came alive with echoes—the pounding of boots, the clatter of chains, and the monstrous roar of the Keeper as it charged.
Rondan sprinted, the torchlight blurring past ancient walls carved with forgotten symbols. Every turn felt tighter, every shadow deeper. Behind him, the metallic scrape of the halberd against stone grew louder.
Leina ran ahead, her cloak snapping in the stale air. "This way!" she shouted, darting through a side passage barely wide enough for one person.
The Keeper lunged, its weapon slamming into the wall where Rondan had been a heartbeat earlier, sending shards of stone flying.
Rondan twisted through the narrow opening, his shoulder grazing the jagged rock. "Tell me this tunnel leads somewhere!"
"It leads away," Leina panted, "and that's all that matters!"
The passage sloped downward, the air growing colder, thicker. Faint whispers drifted through the darkness—voices too distant to be real, too close to ignore.
They burst into a chamber lit by a sickly green glow. In the center stood an ancient altar, its surface cracked and stained, and above it hung chains swaying as though something unseen had just passed by.
Leina's eyes widened. "We can't stay here."
But the Keeper stepped into the light, its rune blazing brighter now, its halberd humming with an eerie resonance. It moved slower here, almost deliberate, as if savoring the hunt.
Rondan drew his sword, the steel gleaming under the green glow. "If it's a fight it wants—"
Leina grabbed his arm. "No! You can't kill it. It's bound to the mark like you are. Strike it down, and the mark will take more of you."
The Keeper raised its weapon, the air around it warping with unnatural force.
Rondan's grip tightened. "Then we run… for now."
They dove toward a crumbling stairwell at the far side of the chamber. The Keeper's halberd slammed into the altar, splitting it in two and sending a shockwave through the room. Dust and debris rained down as they scrambled upward.
From below, the Keeper's voice—deep, hollow, and full of malice—echoed after them:
"You can't outrun what you've become."