The cave entrance loomed before them.
"Are you ready?" Lilith asked.
Nox nodded. "Yeah. I'm fully healed."
He gripped his sword. She tightened her hold on the bloodied shard. Without another word, they stepped into the suffocating dark.
Hours passed in silence as they wandered through twisting tunnels. The air was unnaturally still. Even the distant sounds of beasts were absent.
"Nox…" Lilith finally spoke. "Are you sure it's still here? We've been searching for hours."
"It's here," he said calmly, eyes never stopping their search. "Let's rest for a bit. Twenty minutes, then we move."
"Alright."
They sat down in a narrow bend of the cavern — Nox leaning against the cold stone, Lilith settling beside him. The weight of the silence pressed heavily between them.
"You know," Nox said softly, breaking the quiet, "it's strange. We've been together all these years, but we haven't really talked since entering this place."
Lilith nodded. "It's been… a long time."
"If I had to guess," Nox continued, staring into the shadows ahead, "eight years. Maybe longer."
He exhaled slowly. "I keep wondering what my parents are doing. After all this time… do they even believe I'm still alive? Or has my memory already faded from their lives?"
Lilith turned to him, her voice gentle but certain. "They're waiting. They haven't forgotten. My parents probably assumed my training would take years. They wouldn't be surprised I'm still away."
Nox gave a faint smile, though his gaze remained distant. "I hope you're right."
A pause settled between them.
"Nox…" Lilith whispered. "You don't think we're trapped here forever, do you?"
"No." His voice sharpened. "The Pit doesn't exist to keep us here. It exists to forge us. To break us down, rebuild us stronger. If it wanted us dead, it would've finished us long ago."
Lilith's lips curled into a faint, tired smile. "I couldn't have made it this far alone. You've kept me together more times than I can count. Thank you."
Nox shook his head, exhaling. "Don't mention it. I was just trying to sur—"
CLANG.
A violent blast of wind tore past Lilith's face, snapping her hair back. Her eyes went wide.
There it stood.
A towering, obsidian-skinned monstrosity. Crimson cracks pulsed beneath its black flesh, veins glowing with molten light. A bone-white mask twisted unnaturally across its face, three glowing red eyes darting in constant, unnatural shifts. Six spear-like claws gleamed beneath the faint light, glistening like freshly bled steel.The very air around it bent and warped as if reality itself recoiled from its presence.The Abyssal Devourer.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Nox's mind snapped into focus.
It's smart.Faster than sound.Unbelievably strong.
He barely caught the next strike, steel shrieking as his sword locked with the creature's claw. His body moved before thought — lunging, driving a brutal kick directly at its chest—
But it vanished.
The space where it had stood twisted. His foot struck empty air.
—Where did it—
CRASH.
Before he could react, something slammed into him from behind. His entire body launched forward like a broken doll, slamming into the stone wall with bone-shattering force. The mountain groaned. Rock and debris rained down, burying him beneath collapsing stone.
"Nox!" Lilith screamed, yanking him from the rubble with desperate strength. "We have to get out—now!"
They sprinted toward the exit — but the Devourer was already there.
In an instant, Lilith was ripped from Nox's side, her body slammed against the cavern wall. The monster's claw drove into her side, pinning her helplessly.
BANG.
The next thing she saw was the open sky. The cold air slammed into her as her shattered body blasted out of the collapsing cave, skipping across the ground like broken debris. Flesh tore. Bones snapped. She slammed into the earth with such force that the ground ruptured beneath her, carving a deep crater instantly flooded by her pooling blood. The world spun above as darkness closed in.
Her final breath slipped away.