The suffocating silence of the Maw didn't feel like peace. It felt like being crushed under the thumb of a burial shroud. The atmospheric pressure wasn't just in the air; it felt woven into the atomic structure of the cavern, pressing down on Will's eardrums with the weight of a dying star.
Will woke up choking on pulverized concrete. He couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't feel the jagged piece of rusted rebar digging into his ribs. The Leviathan's freezing, abyssal slush pumped through his veins, numbing his biology, but the system interface in his peripheral vision was an agonizing, strobing red.
[WARNING: Neural Degradation at 84%.]
[Conduit Stability: Failing.]
He shoved a slab of fossilized asphalt off his chest, the sound deafening in the pitch-black void. Will blinked, trying to clear the static from his eyes, and instantly pulled up the Warlord Faction tether.
Two flickering lights pulsed nearby in the dark.
Maddie: [Critical].
Elyas: [Critical].
