The long, dark hall stretched before them like a gaping wound in the fabric of time itself, a place untouched by the passage of years yet haunted by its weight.
The walls were lined with cobwebs, and the air carried a suffocating stillness, as if the very ruins were holding their breath.
And then, they saw him.
A disfigured figure cloaked in black, its skeletal frame gnarled and exposed where charred, blackened bones jutted out in unnatural angles.
Dark green magma oozed over its body, pulsing with an eerie, unholy glow, mirroring the same light burning in its hollow sockets. The flames within its skull flickered slowly, methodically, like a being that had long since transcended the need for haste.
Skully.
He stood motionless before the large rock, just as Asher remembered. As if guarding something.
Rebecca froze, her gaze darting between Asher and Valeria before settling back on Skully.
She had expected something else.
Something... monstrous she couldn't imagine.
