The causeway stretched farther than any they had crossed so far.
Halfway across, the shift in the environment became impossible to ignore. The air grew heavy, pressing against their chests like an invisible weight. This wasn't the familiar distortion of Floor 2's warped gravity. The Vault itself felt hostile.
The translucent stone beneath their feet lost its steady hum and began emitting a harsh, uneven vibration that traveled straight through bone. The blue-violet veins running through the rock flickered with every step. Above them, floating landmasses seemed to tilt inward, their angles sharpening as though the landscape itself was closing around them.
The terrace ahead slowly emerged from the gloom.
A massive stepped structure of black stone rose from the canyon wall. Each tier climbed higher than the last, leading toward a flat summit that vanished into shadow.
The team began their ascent.
Every step felt heavier than it should have. Their muscles burned against resistance that felt like moving through deep water. Near the top, the darkness thinned enough to suggest a horizon, a narrow strip where the oppressive gloom gave way to something slightly less suffocating.
Taryn stopped abruptly on the third tier.
Her boots scraped against worn stone channels as her hand drifted toward her bandolier. Her fingers lingered on empty slots where her strongest mixtures once rested.
"We're running out of options," she said quietly.
No one answered.
Her gaze remained fixed on the endless canyon beside them.
"My supplies are nearly gone. Lysara's rune is barely holding together. Marcus is attracting every soul-draining thing on this floor, and we're climbing deeper into territory we don't understand."
Her voice tightened.
"Maybe we should've stayed near the landing site."
Lysara opened her mouth to respond, but the words never came.
The oppressive atmosphere seemed to swallow the silence whole.
Marcus stepped forward and placed a hand on Taryn's shoulder.
"Look at me."
The command cut through the tension instantly.
Taryn met his eyes.
"Fear is part of the obstacle," Marcus said evenly. "This floor wants us to hesitate."
He gestured toward the canyon behind them.
"Going back changes nothing. The things hunting us are still there. Our resources don't magically return because we retreat."
Then he pointed toward the summit above.
"The only way out is forward."
The words weren't inspiring. They weren't meant to be.
They were simply true.
"We still have a lead. Until that changes, we keep moving."
Taryn held his gaze for a few seconds before finally nodding.
The pressure remained.
But the crack in their resolve closed.
Together, they continued the climb.
They reached the summit.
The true scale of Floor 2 unfolded before them.
Causeways stretched across the void in impossible patterns, crossing and reconnecting in ways that defied reason. From above, the floor resembled a tangled web suspended over infinity.
Then the air changed.
The ambient hum faded.
Silence settled over the landscape.
A moment later, the Choir returned.
Not the mournful lament they had heard on Floor 1.
This melody felt searching.
Exploring.
Feeling its way through the darkness.
Then the riddle arrived.
"Paths that cross were never one. Find the seam where two were drawn."
"That's it," Lysara whispered. "The riddle."
Marcus studied the maze below.
"Find the seam where two were drawn."
Kael followed the intersecting pathways with narrowed eyes.
"Those crossings shouldn't exist."
Taryn glanced toward him.
"What do you mean?"
"If this floor were built from a single design, it'd still have a pattern. Loops. Branches. Dead ends."
His gaze remained fixed on the sprawling network below.
"But these intersections feel wrong. Like two separate layouts were forced together."
Understanding flickered across Lysara's face.
"A seam."
Kael nodded.
"The point where they overlap."
Marcus scanned the distant terrain before raising a hand.
"There."
Far below, a pale strip of stone curved sharply through the darkness.
Unlike every other causeway, it refused to follow the dominant geometry of the floor. It twisted through the web like a crack running across glass.
An inconsistency.
A flaw.
A seam.
"That's our destination," Marcus said.
No one argued.
With the riddle finally offering a direction, the team turned from the summit and began their descent toward the anomaly hidden in the dark.