The heavy stone wall smashed into the ground behind me with a thunderous explosion of dust, obscuring my view of the figures looming ahead. I step out onto the narrow bridge, two feet wide with no rails, and I windmilled my arms for balance as I staggered away from the door already buckling beneath the weight of my pursuer.
I floated forward on momentum alone as the fog lifts, unveiling the towering obsidian faces all around me. Horns and hooked beaks seemed to scream into the bottomless void. Stone guardians of indescribable form watched over the Temple of the First, but the only power they held was the paralyzing fear of their alien biology.
I bore their gaze because I dared not stop. I would have blinded myself that moment if I could, but then the struggle of thousands would have come to naught. So I stared at the sliver of rock beneath my boots for a moment to stabilize my brain. When I glanced back up, I found myself only yards away from the single, massive eyelid ahead of the bridge, stretching as far as I could see in every direction.
It shrugged open as my feet met the platform before it.
The door far behind me smashed apart, and at last my pursuer roiled into the chamber on divine winds. I thought nothing could slow its progress, but it halted itself when it caught sight of me clapping the Amulet down on the alter and smudging the sign drawn across it in centuries-old blood.
The cavern began to shake as I sang out the Sleeper's name. The floating horror who had sought my blood turned tail and shot back through the corridors, no doubt to warn the Empress.
They may send their armies, but they will arrive too late.
Humanity will rise again, and we will turn their own greatest weapon against them.
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