Keiser could hear the ceiling breaking above them.
Screams. Shouts. The thunder of boots on fractured stone. The once-muffled chaos of the upper floors now poured into the undercroft like a flood, unfiltered, raw. The ceiling had split in places, sending thin beams of light knifing through the dust, and the air carried the sharp tang of burnt mana and crushed limestone.
Every sound ricocheted through the space, echoing along the collapsed walls and broken cages that had turned the wide undercroft into a twisted maze.
"Move, keep moving!" Keiser barked, his voice low but edged with urgency. His pulse hammered in his ears, matching the staccato of their footsteps splashing through puddles of spilled smoke and blood.
