The tunnel here was different.
If the previous path had pulsing, vein-like walls, then this one was wrong in an entirely different way.
The stone here was dark—darker than natural rock, as though it had been drenched in black liquid tar.
The walls exuded an eerie sheen, almost like they were sweating, releasing thick droplets that oozed down their surface.
The air was damp, humid, and carried an unsettling scent—one that was both cloyingly sweet and rancid at the same time, like honey left to rot in the sun.
Aura scampered forward as quietly as possible, her tiny frame barely making a sound.
Then, the tunnel widened—into another chamber.
And inside was something they couldn't immediately comprehend.
A pit.
A massive one.
Almost the entire chamber was taken up by it.
The surface of it was black, its shifting mass undulating like the surface of a slow, oily tide. It twisted and rippled, forming patterns that seemed to dissolve before they could truly take shape.
