*****
The air was thick and cold, almost viscous, clinging to the skin like a shadow that refused to leave.
Darkness hung heavy, so complete it swallowed the edges of vision, leaving only faint silhouettes flickering in the dim, flickering torchlight.
The ground beneath was uneven stone, slick with damp, as though the place itself had been untouched for centuries.
Ahead loomed a massive statue, carved from obsidian so black it seemed to drink in the faint light. Its features were impossible to discern clearly, yet somehow, its presence pressed down on everyone in the chamber.
The figure of a god, wings outstretched and eyes eternally closed, loomed like a slumbering leviathan, its aura radiating a quiet, terrifying power.
All around the chamber, figures knelt in reverent silence.
Some whispered, some muttered prayers in a strange, guttural language, syllables that twisted and coiled through the air like living things.
