580: Gathering

The world spun, the chaotic hum of the space crack faded, and for a brief moment, his vision blurred. When his feet finally touched solid ground, the first thing he noticed was the silence.

It wasn't the kind of peaceful silence one might find in a quiet forest or an empty room, it was the suffocating, heavy kind that pressed down on his chest and made every breath feel shallow.

Corey blinked, his Tri-Pupil Eyes immediately adjusted to the dim light of the new environment. The air was thick and damp, carrying the scent of wet earth and something faintly metallic. He turned his head slowly, his gaze falling on the scene before him.

They were standing on what seemed to be a vast, open plain that was disturbingly silent. But it wasn't the plain that caught his attention, it was the towering structure in the distance, in the center of the plain. It rose out of the ground like a decayed monument to forgotten gods, like the bones of a long dead god.