The final unmarked gate opened into red.
Not the deep reddish-purple ambiance of the previous A rank chamber — this was something more committed. The walls bled it, the ceiling held it, the floor reflected it back upward in wavering columns like the stone itself was lit from beneath by something that had been burning down there for a long time. The air was thick in a way that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with mana density — the specific heaviness of a space that had been saturated by a high-output inhabitant for long enough that the environment had reorganised itself around that presence.
Rean stepped through and felt the gate close behind him.
He checked his reserves out of habit.
