D3rLord3, his golden plates glinting in the torchlight, swung his pickaxe for what was meant to be the final strike to clear a doorframe.

The stone didn't just break—it collapsed inward with a hollow, crumbling echo that lasted a second too long.

A wall of cold, damp air, smelling of deep earth and ancient stillness, washed over them, making the flames behind them dance wildly. Where there should have been more solid rock, a yawning chasm of blackness now stretched beyond the reach of their light.

D3rLord3 went perfectly still, a statue of gilded armor at the edge of everything. His helmeted gaze was fixed on the abyss, tracing the faint, jagged outlines of a cavern so vast its ceiling and floor were lost to shadow.

He stood there for a long moment, the silence broken only by the distant, phantom drip of water.

When he finally spoke, his voice was a low, thoughtful rumble.