Chapter 70: Into the Depth
The blast from the RPG still echoed faintly in the cave walls, fragments of bone and ash littering the ground like a desecrated battlefield. Smoke curled lazily from the scorched earth as Inigo stepped back, slinging the now-expended launcher onto his back. The others gathered beside him, cautiously surveying the ruin left behind.
"Still in one piece?" he asked, voice light.
Lyra gave him a playful nudge with her elbow. "You’re ridiculous. That was enough firepower to level a gatehouse."
Serina was more composed, her crimson eyes scanning the cavern. "No ambient necromantic mana remains. That blast severed the primary anchor."
Elira, however, was not smiling. She approached the shattered remains of the minotaur general and crouched beside what remained of its skull. Her hand hovered just above the bone, and she murmured a quiet prayer under her breath.
"That wasn’t just brute necromancy," she said. "Something stronger animated it. That aura... it wasn’t just hate. It was purpose."
Inigo cocked a brow. "You think it was sent?"
Elira nodded grimly. "Perhaps not sent, but bound—forced to protect something deeper."
"Well then," Inigo muttered, reloading his Desert Eagle with mana-infused rounds, "I suppose we’re not done yet."
The four of them regrouped at the edge of the chamber where a tunnel sloped deeper into darkness. Unlike the earlier passages, this one pulsed faintly with red light, casting long, jagged shadows on the uneven stone walls.
Lyra adjusted her quiver. "No turning back now."