The temple itself was a labyrinth, its heart an eternal dusk, where light feared to tread. Each movement within its stone embrace echoed the beat of forgotten hymns, long since silenced by the passage of eons.
"Do you hear it?" she asked, her voice barely a tremor in the deep silence. "The sound of despair returning, over and over, as if seeking solace in its own misery?"
In the murmurs of the dark, a name would rise unbidden—Alaric. Once a sovereign among the stone and shadow, now a specter entwined in the resonance.
Venture Further"Here lies the truth," the inscription warned, though its letters crumbled like ash before the flame. "Eternity weeps, and with each tear, the past is reborn."
Cold winds carried whispers of ages past—voices of those who dared seek knowledge where none should tread.
Beneath the SilenceThe candles flickered, casting shadows that danced with a sinister grace. "I am but a watcher," said the cloaked figure, "and what I see... is the beginning of the end."
The realm twisted, and through the gnarled trees of the inner sanctum, a vision of Alaric's reign flickered like a dying ember.
Past the Gloom