The air was thick with the scent of damp stone and the metallic tang of magic. It coiled through the underground chamber like an unseen serpent, slithering through the cracks in the ancient walls. The dim glow of enchanted braziers cast eerie shadows across the carved glyphs lining the chamber's perimeter, their patterns pulsing faintly with an otherworldly radiance.
Kaelen stepped forward cautiously, his boots pressing against a floor slick with condensation. His breath was steady, measured, though every muscle in his body tensed in anticipation. Something was shifting here, something old—something restless.
A gust of wind, unnatural in its movement, whispered through the chamber, carrying with it a distant voice, or perhaps an echo of one long forgotten. Kaelen's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.
Rina, standing beside him, exhaled sharply. "This place…" she muttered, running her fingers along one of the glowing symbols. The moment she made contact, the glyph flared to life beneath her touch, and she recoiled. "It's like it's breathing."
Kaelen didn't respond. He didn't need to. The very walls of the chamber seemed to hum, a deep, resonant sound vibrating through the stone. The air had changed. It was heavier now, pressing against his skin like an unseen force weighing his every step.
At the centre of the chamber lay an obsidian monolith, jagged and uneven as if broken from something greater. Its surface rippled, as though darkness itself churned within. It pulsed—slowly, rhythmically—like the heartbeat of a slumbering beast.
"This isn't just a relic," Rina whispered. "It's a gate."
Kaelen's mind raced. A gate to where? To what?
Before he could voice his thoughts, the ground trembled beneath them. Dust cascaded from the ceiling as the chamber quaked. The monolith's pulses quickened, its inky blackness stirring violently, as if awakening from centuries of dormancy.
Then, a fissure tore open in the stone, splitting the chamber with a sound like cracking ice.
From within the monolith, a surge of dark energy erupted, spiralling outward in tendrils of shadow. They coiled and lashed through the air, twisting unnaturally. The glyphs lining the walls flared a violent crimson in response, their protective magic straining against the force now flooding the chamber.
Kaelen threw an arm in front of his face as the shadows surged past, their cold touch leaving his skin tingling with an unnatural numbness.
Rina staggered backward, gripping her dagger. "Kaelen! We need to—"
A low, guttural voice reverberated through the chamber, deep and ancient.
"Who… dares… disturb the Rift?"
The shadows swirled, condensing into a form—tall, inhuman, its eyes two smouldering embers set within a void-like visage.
Kaelen's fingers twitched toward his sword.
The entity tilted its head, studying him. Then, it grinned. A grin that had no mouth, yet somehow, he felt it stretch across the darkness.
And then, the chamber collapsed into chaos.