The eyes in the mist blinked — hundreds of them — then began to move. Shadows slithered forward, their forms twisting and reforming into a tide of nightmare creatures. The ground beneath the team quivered like a living thing.
"Run," Lucas said. It wasn't a suggestion.
They bolted just as the first wave struck. Seris spun mid-sprint, hurling a knife that pinned a beast's jaw shut before it could clamp down on Martha's arm. Lucas ignited a wall of flame behind them, but the shadows poured through as if it were smoke.
The Veilways themselves began to shift — pathways twisting, stones splitting, entire arches collapsing as if the realm was trying to swallow them whole.
"They're collapsing the route!" Seris shouted over the roar of falling stone.
"Then we make our own!" Lucas gritted his teeth, slashing his blade into the wall ahead. Chaos energy ripped it apart, opening a jagged path through glowing crystal and black fog.
Martha stumbled but kept pace, her staff flickering with bursts of light to push back smaller shades trying to flank them. "I can't keep this up much longer—"
"You will," Lucas cut in sharply. "We all will."
---
They darted into a narrow corridor, but the shadows didn't stop. The largest of them — a hulking, four-armed beast with crystal-tipped talons — burst through the side wall, showering them in shards. Seris rolled under its swing, stabbing upward into its ribs, but her blades only scraped against hardened crystal.
Lucas slammed into it with a shoulder charge, knocking it back just enough to buy time. "Martha! Veilfire!"
Her eyes widened. "That'll burn you too—"
"Do it!"
She planted her staff, channeling blinding white flames that roared down the corridor. The beast howled as the Veilfire consumed its form, burning through shadow and crystal alike. Lucas winced as the heat licked his skin, but they pushed forward.
---
The corridor opened into a rift chamber — a massive cavern split by a chasm of swirling voidlight. Across the gap, the only exit shimmered faintly. Between them and safety, a narrow, crumbling bridge swayed, pieces breaking off into the abyss below.
"Oh, this is perfect," Seris muttered.
Behind them, the shadow tide surged again. Lucas pointed to the bridge. "Go! I'll hold them."
Seris grabbed Martha and sprinted ahead. Lucas turned to face the swarm, the Orb at his hip thrumming dangerously. He let the chaos affinity rise until his vision blurred, then unleashed it in a sweeping arc. Shadow-beasts disintegrated by the dozen, but more filled their place instantly.
The bridge groaned under the women's weight as cracks spread. "Lucas!" Martha called, her voice tight with fear.
He sprinted for the bridge just as the lead beast lunged. Its claws tore through the stone, sending half the span crumbling into the void. Lucas leapt — the gap yawning beneath him — and landed hard, almost knocking Seris and Martha off balance.
The remaining length of the bridge shuddered as the swarm reached it.
---
"Jump!" Lucas barked.
They hit the far ledge just as the bridge gave way entirely, the swarm plummeting into the endless dark. But before relief could set in, the walls of the exit tunnel began to constrict, as if the Veilways were sealing them inside.
Lucas thrust his hands forward, raw chaos tearing open a hole just big enough to squeeze through. They dove, landing in a heap on cold, solid ground.
Silence. No mist. No eyes. Just the faint hum of an unfamiliar energy.
Martha sat up, panting. "Where… are we?"
Seris scanned the alien landscape beyond — black glass plains under a blood-red sky. "Not anywhere I've been before."
Lucas looked back at the sealed rift. His voice was low, certain. "Wherever it is… we weren't supposed to survive getting here."
And far on the horizon, a colossal silhouette began to move.