The first thing Rondan heard was the sound of stone breaking.
The creature had driven its claws into the wall, tearing through it as though it were brittle clay. Dust and chunks of rock rained down, and the torches along the passage guttered in the rush of disturbed air.
Leina didn't wait—she pulled him toward the narrow stairwell spiraling deeper into the earth.
"Move!"
Their boots slammed against the steps, each one slick with centuries of damp and decay. The air was colder here, but the weight of it pressed down, as though the very catacomb resisted their passage.
Behind them, the beast followed—not by running, but by flowing, its massive body coiling and uncoiling like a living shadow, bending around the tunnel walls in ways no creature should.
It spoke again, not aloud but in the marrow of their bones.
"Deeper, deeper… yes, take me where I was made."
Rondan's heartbeat thundered. It wants us to go down.
Every instinct screamed to turn back, but there was no turning back—not with that thing filling the tunnels behind them.
Leina led him into a vaulted chamber lined with crumbling statues, their features worn smooth by time. She stopped at the far wall and pressed her hands against a faded mural.
"Help me—there's a seal here."
Rondan braced himself and pushed. The mural shifted with a grinding roar, revealing a narrow stone passage. A bitter wind rolled out from the darkness beyond.
The creature struck. Its head lunged into the chamber, jaw snapping shut where Rondan had been a heartbeat earlier. One of the statues shattered under its strike, fragments skittering across the floor.
Leina shoved him through the opening.
"Go! I'll seal it!"
"Not without you!"
But before he could drag her through, the beast's claw scraped the wall inches from her face, showering them in sparks of molten light.
Leina's eyes locked on his.
"Find the second seal. Don't let it reach the surface."
Then she slammed her palms into the mural. Stone groaned, the passage closing between them as the creature roared—a sound that shook the catacombs to their core.
Rondan was left alone, the echo of her words burning in his mind… and the darkness ahead whispering promises he didn't want to understand.