The ventilation shaft was a narrow tube of galvanized steel that smelled of dust. Lena moved first, and Jake followed. They crawled for what felt like miles, though the map in front of Lena said it was only a few hundred meters.
Through the slats of the grate below, the facility unfolded. It wasn't a prison; it was a slaughterhouse.
The lower level was a cavernous hollow, stripped of its original industrial purpose and refitted for mass containment. Rows of cages stretched from wall to wall, stacked three high and connected by a labyrinth of catwalks. Inside each cage, huddled in the filth of their own existence, were the survivors.
But they weren't just trapped.
Lena peered through the grate, tracing the faint, blue lines of mana that pulsed through the metal bars of the cages.
The bars were etched with runes that prevented the occupants from using their powers or their strength, and they were made in a way that was similar to how the magic circles were made.
