The stairwell narrowed as they went down. Luke's lightspell flickered with the press of the air — too thick, too warm. It smelled like iron and old breath.
The path widened abruptly into a hollow space.
It was not a cave.
It was a nest.
The floor was veined with pulsing black roots. Bones littered the edges. Half-melted weapons. Cloth torn into ribbons. A boot, upright and filled with ash.
Amara said nothing. But her hand drifted to the blade at her side.
The ceiling twitched.
Luke barely had time to shout before the first monster dropped.
It came from above, twisted and wet, a creature fused from too many things — a lion's torso stitched to insect limbs, eyes scattered across its hide, wings like burnt paper dragging behind it. It screamed as it fell.
Luke shoved Amara to the side and cast a flareburst. The light stunned it midair — just long enough for Amara to twist and slash upward with the dagger Luke got for her on her birthday, flames licking from her blade.
The thing burst into ash.
But more followed.
They came skittering from cracks in the walls, slithering from tunnels, falling from the dark. None looked the same. All moved like they knew how to kill.
"Why are they all different?" Amara shouted, blasting one back with a wave of force.
Luke ducked a clawed strike and countered with a spike of obsidian magic. "Because they're not summoned: they're built."
The monsters circled them.
One lunged — three mouths, two legs, no eyes. Luke burned it down.
Another crawled from behind — hissing, covered in mirrors, copying their stances. Amara shattered it with a curse-word he didn't recognize. Still they came. Luke's magic surged. Amara's blade burned white. They moved in sync — barely speaking, but never missing a beat.
A monster leapt from the shadows — massive, armored, roaring with seven mouths. Luke struck first — lightning through the center — and Amara followed, driving her blade into the exposed core.
It fell.
The silence returned, thick as blood. Ash settled on their shoulders. Somewhere deep in the tunnels, something growled. Not near. But not far.
Luke's voice was low. "They're testing us."
"I know," she said.
Another sound — a clicking, far away, like claws on stone.
Amara tightened her grip. "We keep moving."
Luke didn't argue and they stepped forward into the dark again .