The Path of Dominion loomed before them, its entrance framed by crumbling stone pillars carved with snarling beasts frozen mid-lunge. The runes above the archway pulsed with a slow, amber light, almost like a heartbeat.
Adam stepped through first, his horns scraping against a low-hanging lintel as he passed. The moment his foot touched the floor beyond the threshold, the temperature dropped. Not gradually, but instantly, as if the corridor itself was drawing warmth from his body.
Lilith followed close behind, her silver-threaded gown rustling against the ancient stone. Her crimson eyes swept the walls, cataloguing the reliefs that lined the passage, armies clashing, kings kneeling, and at the center of every scene, a figure wreathed in golden light, holding a staff shaped like a serpent eating its own tail. "These carvings depict someone exercising absolute authority over others," she murmured. "The Path of Dominion indeed."
