"What the hell...?"
The words left Mikhailis's mouth, but the world in front of him did not care.
The maze had only been the outer insult.
Beyond it stretched something so much larger that his mind refused to accept it at first. Black ridges rose like broken kingdoms. Pale fungal forests glimmered around half-buried statues. Stone bridges hung over drops too deep for a chamber. Far away, old towers stood crooked under a mineral sky that should not have existed underground. Between them, thin rivers of treasure-light and mana runoff cut through the dark like veins in a giant body.
For one breath, awe almost won.
Then the pressure of the Leviathan moved through the domain again.
Not a roar. Not a footstep.
A decision.
The air changed. The treasure walls behind them seemed to listen. Somewhere far off, something heavy shifted in a way that made distance feel fake. A low metallic murmur moved through the deeper structures, like old wealth remembering who owned it.
