Book 5: Chapter 13 — Third Tier
It took another six hours of traversing the underhalls, gradually moving higher and higher, before they emerged out onto the Third Tier, much higher than they’d ventured before.
The haze-filtered sun was still harsh after the absolute darkness below. Noah's combined sight improvements meant he barely noticed, but Aurelia shielded her face, squinting until her own adaptation caught up.
"Air," she breathed, inhaling deeply. "Actual air that isn’t made of dead bugs."
"Technically, the arena air isn't much better. Just different flavors of decay."
"Don't ruin this for me."
The ancient seating here was less colonized by vegetation, the stone showing traces of its original grandeur. Massive statues stood at intervals along the tier, representations of beings that must have been Pathkeepers, features worn smooth by time but their scale still imposing. Even the smaller columns were big enough to build a house in with room to spare.
Movement in his peripheral vision. Noah's hand went to his spear on reflex, Abyssal Awareness flaring to maximum sensitivity.
Four humanoids, clustered behind a fallen column at the far end of the section, weapons drawn but clearly focused on something else. One of them was gesturing urgently at something beyond a fallen column.
And even further beyond them, though he couldn’t see it, his awareness showed something big coming in fast.