The white light of the transit gate did not fade into a cave. It dissolved into a nightmare.
Vane felt the transition hit Senna's body like a physical blow. The atmospheric pressure in the Void-Hydra's lair was crushing. The air did not smell like earth. It smelled like ozone, ancient rot, and the metallic tang of blood that had been boiling for centuries.
The geometry of the place was wrong. The walls of the vast cavern seemed to shift and breathe, glowing with nauseating violet veins. The ground was slick with an oily residue that hissed beneath their boots. There was no time to get their bearings. The screaming Vane had heard in the transition was waiting for them.
"Contact front!" Senna roared, her voice the only steady thing in the chaos.
