Chapter Seventy-Seven

The chamber around them crumbled into chaos, with pieces of the ceiling smashing down and the ground part open, uncovering a bottomless abyss underneath. The air was thick with the energy of the abyss, a harsh constraint that made it difficult to breathe. Ethan held Clara near as the room around them kept on dropping separately, their grasp on reality slipping away with each passing moment.

“We need to move!” Ethan yelled over the stunning thunder of the collapsing chamber. But as they attempted to take a step further, the ground underneath them crumbled apart, sending them tumbling into the void.

For a brief minute, they were weightless, suspended within the obscurity with nothing to hold on to. The abyss surged around them, a pernicious drive that intended to drag them more profound into its profundity. But just as it appeared they would be lost until the end of time, they landed hard on a strong surface.

Ethan moaned in torment as he pushed himself up, the world around him still tu