"Some doors aren't meant to open."
---
The thread of light from the cracked sphere faded into the doorway.
Elis hesitated.
His body begged him to turn back…
…but his thoughts whispered follow.
The first step felt heavy.
The air beyond the arch was thicker, as if it resisted him.
Every breath carried the taste of iron and dust.
The stone corridor stretched far into the shadows.
Its walls were carved with thirteen symbols, glowing faintly, pulsing in an uneven rhythm.
Almost like… they were alive.
Elis reached out.
The closest rune burned cold beneath his fingertips.
A sudden image exploded into his mind —
…a storm of fog swallowing cities.
People screaming without faces.
A sphere cracking open, spilling light into the void.
He stumbled back, gasping for air.
The vision was gone.
But the taste of fear remained.
---
A low hum rolled through the corridor.
The runes brightened.
One by one.
One. Two. Three.
Each time a symbol lit up, the hum grew louder.
By the eighth, the entire passage vibrated beneath his feet.
And then… silence.
The ninth rune refused to glow.
Elis stared at it, drawn by instinct.
It was cracked. Faint lines like veins crawled across its surface, dripping faint sparks into the stone.
He crouched to touch it.
The moment his finger brushed the crack —
the fog behind him sealed shut.
The doorway vanished.
He was trapped.
---
The hum returned.
Deeper. Sharper.
A single voice, layered and broken, whispered directly into his thoughts:
"One is missing."
Elis jerked his head around.
The corridor was empty.
"One is missing."
The voice grew louder.
Almost desperate.
The runes shifted.
The carvings rearranged themselves on the stone, spiraling into a new formation.
The pattern looked like… an eye.
The cracked rune pulsed weakly,
and then a drop of light fell from it —
splattering on the floor like liquid glass.
The hum stopped.
Everything went silent.
Too silent.
Elis leaned closer to the cracked rune…
…and it blinked.
---
"You're late."
The voice came from inside the wall.
Before he could react, the ninth rune exploded in light,
and the corridor tore itself open,
revealing a black void full of whispers.
Elis froze on the edge.
Something vast… something watching…
was waiting below.
He stepped forward.
And the floor collapsed beneath him.
---
To be continued…