Chapter 10: The Maw Beneath the Earth

The journey to the Elders had left Lena exhausted, but it was nothing compared to the weight she felt now. Their cryptic words echoed in her mind, the dark revelation of the Hollow Sky's full nature—its servants, its unrelenting hunger, its inevitability. They had told her that her quest to stop it was futile, that the Hollow Ones were merely the first heralds of something far greater, something much more dangerous. And they had spoken of the cost of interfering.

No, Lena thought bitterly, shaking her head as she walked away from the altar room. I can't accept that. I won't.

She walked back through the forgotten passageways of Ashenreach, each step more deliberate than the last, each breath heavier with the knowledge she had gained from the Elders. The weight of it all—the hopelessness, the darkness, the overwhelming sense of fate pressing down on her—made her want to stop, to collapse right there in the dirt.

But that was not an option.

As much as she wanted to dismiss the Elders' warnings, the truth was undeniable. The Hollow Sky wasn't something she could wish away. It was a force, ancient and cruel, and it was waking up. The Hollow Ones were only the beginning, but if she could stop them, perhaps—just perhaps—she could find a way to stem the tide before the worst of it arrived.

The air grew thicker as Lena ventured deeper into the tunnels beneath Ashenreach. There was something in the atmosphere, something ancient and unwelcoming. It pressed in on her chest, making it hard to breathe. The feeling of being watched, of being hunted, was palpable. She kept her lantern low, the dim glow revealing the ever-narrowing path ahead.

The Elders had told her of the Maw. They hadn't said much, just that it lay beneath Ashenreach, deeper still than the Elders' sanctuary, beyond the reach of mortal hands. They had spoken of it only in whispers, a place of darkness and hunger—a place where the Hollow Sky's true power thrived. It was said that to reach it, one had to surrender to the earth itself, to be consumed by the weight of its endless void.

And now, Lena was on the path to find it.

Why? she asked herself, as the walls around her seemed to pulse with an almost rhythmic heartbeat. Was she foolish for following this path? The Maw was something she didn't understand, and yet, she felt drawn to it. She couldn't ignore the gnawing sense that it held the answer, the key to stopping the Hollow Sky—or perhaps something worse, something that would ensure its arrival.

The deeper she went, the more the walls seemed to close in on her. A strange hum filled the air, an unsettling vibration beneath her feet that made her teeth rattle and her skin crawl. It felt like something ancient and hungry, alive in ways that went beyond simple biology. Something that had waited for centuries, just below the surface.

Lena had seen many strange things in Ashenreach, but nothing had prepared her for what lay ahead.

The passageway opened up into a vast chamber, its size beyond comprehension. The walls of the cavern stretched so high that they disappeared into the blackness above, and the floor was covered in a dense, shifting fog. The smell of earth and decay was thick, suffocating. She hesitated at the edge of the fog, unable to see what lay beyond, but knowing with a gut-deep certainty that whatever was there—whatever had created the hum in the air—was waiting.

With a deep breath, she stepped forward into the mist.

The fog parted as she walked, revealing a cavernous maw that seemed to pulse with a life of its own. It was a vast, gaping pit—its edges lined with strange, jagged stones that seemed to grow organically from the earth, twisting and contorting as if reaching for her. The air was dense with the oppressive force of something ancient—something far beyond her understanding.

Lena felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as the ground beneath her trembled. The Maw seemed to breathe, its edges shifting and moving in response to her presence. A low, rumbling growl filled the cavern, resonating in the very core of her being. The pit yawned before her, its depths unfathomable, its darkness consuming.

She knew, without a doubt, that she was standing at the edge of something far older than the Hollow Ones. This was the true source of the Hollow Sky, the place where its dark power gathered, waiting to rise again.

But there was more—something deeper, hidden in the pit itself. A presence. A force, like an ancient hunger that had slumbered for eons, now awakened. It called to her in ways she could not describe, its pull stronger than any fear or logic.

Lena reached out tentatively, her hand trembling as she touched the cold, jagged stone at the edge of the pit. The instant her fingers made contact, the ground shook violently, sending a shockwave through the cavern. She staggered back, gasping for breath, as the fog seemed to thicken, swirling around her in a chaotic vortex.

A voice—deep, guttural, and almost inhuman—echoed through the chamber.

"You should not have come here, child of the Hollow Sky."

The voice was ancient, its power reverberating in every corner of the cavern, making Lena's bones ache. It was not the voice of the Hollow Ones, but something darker, older—something that had lain dormant in the depths of the earth for millennia.

Lena's heart hammered in her chest as she struggled to maintain her footing, her breath shallow. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, swallowed by the eerie silence that followed the voice's words.

From the depths of the Maw, something stirred. A shape emerged from the blackness, too vast and terrible for her to comprehend. It was as if the earth itself had taken shape, its mass shifting and undulating like something alive, something that should not exist.

"We are the Keepers of the Hollow Sky," the voice continued, its tone like a thousand whispers, each one more insistent than the last. "We are the ones who guard the hunger. We are the darkness that devours."

Lena stumbled backward, her heart racing as the realization hit her like a wave. This was no mere force of nature. The Maw—this ancient pit—was the heart of the Hollow Sky itself. And these creatures, these Keepers, were its eternal guardians. They had fed the Hollow Sky with the sacrifices of countless generations, their hunger driving the cycle of death and rebirth.

The fog began to dissipate, revealing the full enormity of the Maw. It stretched endlessly before her, a pit of darkness so deep that it felt as if it reached into the very bowels of the earth. The presence within it was almost suffocating—its power so immense that Lena could feel it pressing in on her chest, as if the very weight of the earth was bearing down on her.

"You seek to stop us," the voice rumbled, growing darker with each word. "But you cannot. The Hollow Sky is inevitable. You are part of it. You always have been."

Lena's legs shook as the ground trembled beneath her feet. The Maw was opening, revealing its true face—a maw that could consume not just the world, but the stars themselves.

"No," Lena whispered, backing away, her hands trembling as she reached for the lantern. "I won't let you. I won't let it happen."

But the Maw continued to beckon, its hunger endless, its power inexorable. The Keepers of the Hollow Sky had spoken the truth. The earth itself seemed to cry out in anticipation of the coming storm, and Lena was caught in the jaws of something far more terrifying than she could have ever imagined.