The tunnel narrowed, webbing strung tight like veins across cracked stone. Each strand shimmered faintly — silver laced with violet.
Luke paused. "Don't touch that."
Amara drew her blade and tapped one. It hissed — her blade dimmed a bit.
"Magic-draining silk," she muttered. "Of course."
They stepped into the chamber—and the ceiling exploded. A dozen beasts dropped, landing in perfect silence. Spiders, each the size of a horse cart, plated in chitin and crystal. Their limbs moved with machine precision. Fangs like burning glass pulsed with hungry light. Eyes—too many—blinked in eerie unison.
Luke reacted first : His blast launched two across the chamber. Another lunged, limbs a blur—he slid beneath it and shattered its underbelly with a whip of compressed air.
He turned toward Amara—
Too late.
One of the spiders had already dragged her backward into a wall of webbing. The stone sealed behind her like a mouth. More spiders dropped between him and the wall.
Luke didn't hesitate.
He carved through them like stormlight—measured, merciless. No wasted movement. Every strike killed something. Magic snapped through the air like lightning off a blade.
He reached the wall.
"Amara!"
No answer.
He set his palm to the stone and whispered a spell that bent gravity itself.
The wall peeled open like bark.
Luke stepped carefully into the ruined chamber.
Amara stood at the center, surrounded by giant spider corpses—some cracked open, some burned from the inside out. Her jacket hung in tatters. Blood traced her cheek. Her blade dripped violet ichor.
She wasn't breathing hard.
She wasn't shaken.
She looked… steady.
Alive in a way he hadn't seen before.
"You're late," she said, eyes sharp.
Luke didn't answer right away. He took in the damage — the precision, the power. He'd seen her fight. He knew she was strong.
But this was something else.
Something she hadn't shown before.
Something she might not even realize she's showing now.
He nodded once. "Let's go."
She gave a short nod and walked ahead.
Luke followed, quiet, watching the way her shadow moved across the tunnel wall. There was a calmness in her stride that hadn't been there before.
And beneath it, something beginning to wake.