The sickening crunch of collapsing bones and boiling marrow echoed through the sweltering caldera.
Within seconds, the plump muscle on their frames melted away, violently converted into raw, liquid vitality.
Their skin lost all color, stretching paper-thin and turning a necrotic, bruised gray that glued itself directly to their sharp, protruding ribs.
Vibrant rivers of boiling blood, red marrow essence, and spiritual energy were forcibly dragged through their open pores and torn wounds, flowing into the hungry runic channels on the floor.
One of the captives violently convulsed as a thick tendril punched up through the roof of his mouth, bursting his jaw open in a spray of shredded teeth and black, curdled gore to greedily siphon the spiritual essence from his brain.
The air grew thick and heavy with the suffocating reek of copper, burned flesh, and ruptured entrails.
