The path to the Genesis Forge was no longer a hallway of pristine marble and mana-infused lighting. It was a tunnel of twisted rebar and shattered stone, buried beneath thousands of tons of the collapsed Astronomy Tower.
Alvian walked through the dark, his [Vestments of the Void Monarch] glowing with a faint, ethereal violet light that pushed back the shadows. Beside him, Valeria moved with the heavy, rhythmic clanking of her battered plate armor. She had refused to stay behind at the makeshift medical camp, insisting that his back needed watching.
"The structural integrity down here is compromised," Valeria whispered, her voice echoing slightly in the cramped space. She reached out, steadying a slab of concrete that groaned ominously above their heads. "One wrong vibration, and this whole sector collapses on us."
