The golden portal hovered in the center of the collapsing cavern, its radiant warmth pushing back the swirling torrents of freezing seawater that battered the Grand Hex-Chamber. Through the threshold of light, the chaotic roar of the underworld faded into a profound, breathless hush.Jayd knew the only one to arrive at such a time with such aura but he was not expecting it and worried about the outcome of the encounter.Stepping slowly out of the luminous mist came a figure clad in immaculate armor of polished star-metal and silver plate, bearing the undeniable, timeless authority of the high heavens. Her silver hair fell in long, unblemished waves over her shoulders, and her eyes burned with the steady, piercing luminescence of an ancient star.It was Valkyrie.Jayd stood frozen, his boots ankle-deep in the rushing floodwaters, the Aegis-Breaker still clutched tightly in his hand. The divine warmth radiating from her presence was absolute, filling the hollow ache in his chest that ha

The sloping obsidian shelf shuddered beneath their boots with a violence that threatened to tear the stone apart. A spiderweb of blinding white-and-purple fractures raced across the ancient foundations of the abyss, accompanied by a high-pitched, metallic shriek that vibrated directly through the marrow of their bones."Move! Don't look down, just run!" Jayd shouted over the rising roar of the tectonic collapse.He scrambled across the cracking, uneven stone shelves, his boots skidding over loose ash and jagged basalt fragments. Every stride was a desperate gamble against gravity and time. Behind him, Julian vaulted over a widening fissure with cat-like agility, his fingers grazing the edge before pulling himself up. Lyra pushed forward with her heavy broadshield held defensively overhead to deflect flying chunks of obsidian, while Alysia and Master Corvus followed close behind, their eyes fixed on their destination: the central basalt dais rising from the edge of the abyss.They had