The transition through the Spire's transit portal was not accompanied by the sickening, spatial tear that usually tore at a warrior's meridians. Thanks to the master authority of the Spire Key, the golden-violet archway folded reality around them like silk, depositing Kyle, Seraphina, Falcon, and Yua onto the cold, damp stone floor of the subterranean vaults deep beneath the Lumia Kingdom.
The heavy, metallic smell of high-grade mana, iron reinforcements, and subterranean dampness hit them instantly.
They stood in the ancient lower archives beneath the capital's inner keep—the exact place where Kyle and Elara had once decoded the royal spatial scroll before his journey to the Crimson Ridge. The room was illuminated only by the faint, pulsing blue glow of the subterranean ley-line conduits built into the stone walls.
