The abyss breathed.
Not wind.
Not air.
Breath.
It rose from the spiraling dark beneath the cathedral floor, cold and damp, carrying the scent of stone that had never known sunlight. The gathered Ashen-blooded stood in silence as the opening widened, ancient mechanisms grinding deep below.
Kael stepped closer to the edge.
The darkness did not feel empty.
It felt inhabited.
Maera approached his side. "No one survives their first descent unchanged," she said quietly.
Kael didn't look at her. "Good."
That answer made her study him more carefully.
Torches along the chamber walls ignited one by one, their flames burning deep violet instead of orange. The light did not push back the dark below — it simply revealed more of it.
A spiral staircase carved into the stone interior curved downward into blackness.
Dren shifted uneasily. "You're not seriously sending him down already?"
Maera's gaze remained on the abyss. "It isn't my decision."
A low pulse rolled upward again.
Closer this time.
The obelisk behind them split fully in two with a sharp crack. A fragment of stone fell into the abyss and disappeared without sound.
Kael felt something pull at him.
Not physically.
Internally.
The Umbra inside him stirred like a waking predator.
Without waiting for permission, he stepped onto the first stair.
The chamber murmured behind him.
Maera did not stop him.
"Three levels," she called down. "Do not go further."
Kael did not answer.
He descended.
The air grew heavier with each step.
The staircase was narrow, hugging the circular wall. Strange markings covered the stone — older than the cathedral above. Not carved. Pressed into the rock as if something massive had leaned against it long ago.
After twenty steps, the light from above faded.
After fifty, silence swallowed all sound from the chamber.
After one hundred, Kael heard something else.
Whispers.
Not around him.
Inside.
Ashen…
He tightened his jaw and kept moving.
The Umbra within him reacted differently here. It did not resist the depth.
It welcomed it.
The first level opened suddenly into a wide circular platform. Stone pillars surrounded its perimeter. In the center stood a cracked seal carved into the floor — an intricate sigil of interlocking circles.
The air vibrated faintly above it.
Kael stepped onto the platform.
The seal flared briefly with pale light — then dimmed.
Testing him.
He crouched, studying the lines. He didn't understand the symbols, but something in him recognized their purpose.
Barrier.
Containment.
Protection.
A sound echoed from below.
Not a roar.
Not a growl.
A slow dragging movement across stone.
Kael stood.
The shadows around the pillars thickened.
They weren't reacting to light.
They were reacting to him.
"You came."
The voice did not travel through air.
It appeared in his mind.
Deep.
Layered.
Ancient.
Kael's pulse spiked, but he did not retreat.
"You are not whole," the voice continued.
The pillars trembled.
"You are fragment."
The shadows stretched from the pillars toward the center platform, creeping across the seal like living veins.
Kael felt the Umbra rise instinctively around his arms — not attacking, but defending.
"You are bound," Kael said quietly.
A pause.
Then something like amusement.
"Bound," the voice agreed. "For now."
A crack split across the seal beneath Kael's boots.
Second level.
The thought appeared unbidden in his mind.
Go deeper.
Kael stepped toward the continuation of the staircase.
The seal behind him fractured another inch.
Back above, in the chamber, Maera stiffened.
"He's reached the first seal," she murmured.
Dren frowned. "That was fast."
Maera did not answer.
She was listening.
Far below, something had shifted.
Kael descended again.
The second level was colder.
Colder than stone should be.
Frost clung to the walls, though no water was present. The staircase ended at a narrow corridor instead of a platform.
The walls here were different.
Smooth.
Not carved.
Not natural.
Melted.
As if immense heat once flowed through this space.
The corridor led to a vast chamber.
And in its center—
Chains.
Massive black chains thicker than tree trunks stretched downward into darkness. They were anchored to stone spires that rose from the floor. Runes burned faintly along their length.
Each chain vibrated.
Not violently.
Steadily.
Like restrained force pressing outward.
Kael stepped closer.
The Umbra inside him surged violently this time.
Not curiosity.
Recognition.
The voice returned.
"Blood of my jailers."
The chains groaned.
"You are thin," it said. "Weak."
Kael clenched his fists. "You sound desperate."
Silence.
Then the chamber shook.
One chain snapped.
The sound exploded through the cavern like thunder.
The remaining chains strained.
Above, Maera staggered as a shockwave rippled through the cathedral.
"No," she whispered.
Dren grabbed the railing overlooking the abyss. "What was that?!"
Maera's face had gone pale.
"One of the binds just broke."
Below, Kael stood frozen as the broken chain whipped upward and shattered against the ceiling.
Dust rained down.
"You are not ready," the voice said, now sharper. "But you will be."
The Umbra around Kael flared outward instinctively, wrapping around the remaining chains.
He didn't know how he was doing it.
But the shadow hardened.
Reinforcing.
Stabilizing.
The vibration lessened.
The remaining chains steadied.
The voice grew quieter.
"Interesting…"
Kael's breathing slowed.
"You're not getting out tonight," he said.
A faint chuckle echoed in his skull.
"Tonight is not my concern."
The floor beneath the chains began to glow faintly.
Kael saw it now — a massive circular pit beneath them.
And at its center…
An eye.
Not flesh.
Not fully formed.
But present.
Watching.
He staggered back as the eye focused upward.
Focused on him.
It was larger than a house.
And it was opening wider.
The third level waited below the chains.
Maera had told him not to go further.
Kael looked down at the staring abyss.
The Umbra inside him pulsed in response.
Not fear.
Challenge.
"You are incomplete," the Hollow King said.
Kael stepped toward the descending path anyway.
The eye widened further.
"You will break."
Kael stopped at the edge.
For a moment — doubt flickered.
He was seventeen.
Untrained.
Unready.
But he remembered the Sentinels.
The bells.
The Houses digging.
If he ran now, the Hollow King would only grow stronger.
And next time, there might be no chains left.
Kael stepped onto the third descent.
Above, Maera's voice rang out, amplified by some unseen force.
"Kael! Stop!"
Too late.
The staircase cracked behind him.
The path sealed.
There was no going back up.
Only down.
The temperature plummeted.
Breath crystallized in the air.
The Umbra around him thickened, shielding him from pressure that felt like the ocean pressing inward.
The third level opened not into a chamber —
But into a void.
There was no floor.
Only suspended stone platforms floating in endless black.
At the center, far below—
The true form of the Hollow King.
Not solid.
Not entirely shape.
A colossal mass of writhing shadow coiled around a fractured crown of black flame.
The chains connected to that crown.
Two remained.
One broken.
The eye opened fully now.
And it smiled.
"Welcome," it said.
Kael felt very small.
The void pulsed once.
And something detached from the Hollow King's mass.
A smaller shape.
Humanoid.
Forged from dense shadow.
It landed silently on the nearest platform.
Its head tilted.
Featureless.
Waiting.
"A test," the Hollow King whispered.
The shadow figure lunged.
Kael reacted on instinct.
Umbra surged from his body like armor.
The impact shattered the platform beneath his feet.
Stone fell into endless dark.
Kael barely leapt to the next floating slab.
The shadow creature followed effortlessly.
Faster than him.
Stronger.
It struck again — this time slicing across his shoulder.
Pain exploded through him.
Cold.
Burning cold.
He staggered but didn't fall.
The Umbra flared violently, forming a blade along his arm.
Not something he decided.
Something he felt.
The creature paused.
Observing.
Then attacked again.
This time Kael met it head-on.
Shadow clashed against shadow.
The impact rippled outward like a silent explosion.
Below them, the Hollow King watched.
Evaluating.
Judging.
Kael gritted his teeth and drove forward, forcing his Umbra blade through the creature's torso.
The shadow being froze.
Then dissolved into mist.
Silence returned.
Kael stood shaking.
Blood — darkened by Umbra — dripped from his shoulder.
The Hollow King's voice softened.
"You learn quickly."
The fractured crown beneath it pulsed faintly.
"You will free me."
Kael steadied his breathing.
"No," he said.
The eye narrowed slightly.
"You already have."
Far above, another chain snapped.
Chapter Three Ends.