Chapter 477 - Hunting Nidhogg

Umbra descended the first steps of the staircase leading to the depths of the castle with firm, silent steps, while the darkness below seemed to make way for her presence as if instinctively recognizing the authority she carried. The air grew denser with each meter traveled, laden with that ancient scent of primordial earth and ancestral magic that existed only in the deepest layers of the Umbral, where the very structure of the dimension began to intertwine with something much larger. The echo of her footsteps was muffled, absorbed by the black stones that formed the walls of the passage, and the spectral illumination that existed in the upper layers gradually disappeared, replaced by a faint glow emanating from natural fissures in the walls, as if invisible roots pulsed beneath the surface.