The cavern gave way.
A sound like the earth itself splitting roared through the dark, deeper than thunder, sharper than a scream. Cracks spidered across the ceiling, glowing faintly red as fire seeped through veins of stone. The air shuddered, and then the world began to fall.
Boulders tore loose, crashing down in avalanches. Dust exploded upward, choking, blinding. The hunters scattered, their orders dissolving into panicked shouts as the floor tilted under their feet. Some were crushed outright, their bodies vanishing beneath tons of rock, screams snuffed mid-breath. Others staggered on, eyes still locked on Aria even as death rained around them.
The shadow did not move to dodge. It swelled instead, smoke curling upward to meet the collapse, its claws slicing falling stone in midair as if defying gravity itself. Each strike left trails of fire against the black. Its laughter deepened, filling the cavern, a choir of voices that scraped against Aria's skull.
