The Princess of Siranteos

Stone screams as the Underhall splits wider. Eden sprints over jagged rubble, the tunnel buckling behind her while dust and cold violet light pour from the fracture like breath from a waking beast.

Kha'zura hits the threshold in a blaze of gold scales, shoulder braced against fallen stone. He hauls a slab aside and clears a narrow path, his eyes fixed past Eden toward the hungry dark below.

Nazareth and Araneidan push in behind her, both of them tense, both of them measuring the collapse. Above them, the floor keeps shedding chunks into the devourer's maw.

A deeper tremor rolls through the stone. The crack below swells open toward Eden, as if the Underhall itself is being drawn toward her by the devourer’s will.

Eden drives uphill through the collapse, boots skidding on shattered stone as the tunnel tilts toward daylight. Dust claws at her back, but the widening breach falls away behind her.

Kha'zura lunges after her and catches the last stable lip, hauling himself onward while the floor groans under his weight. Nazareth keeps pace a step behind, one hand out as if to shield Eden from the sucking dark.

Araneidan looks once into the fracture, then snaps her weaver limbs wide and slams them down to steady the split stone. The violet glare below flickers, then dulls under the strain.

A shaft of pale light opens above them. Eden clears the final rise and reaches the lip beneath open air, the devourer's pull no longer biting at her heels.

Behind them, the Underhall buckles with a long, hungry crack, but the way out stands open for the moment.