The wind was still. Too still.
Kael stood at the edge of the abyss, his chest still echoing with phantom pain from Kiona's punch. The air here was thick, not with heat or cold, but with something far worse—silence. A silence so absolute that it rang in his ears like an ancient bell tolling in the void.
The cliff below stretched endlessly downward, shrouded in swirling mists that devoured light and reason. Even his Draconic eyes couldn't find a bottom. It was a pit meant to swallow everything.
But it was the crimson tree that held his attention.
Unlike the version in the illusory forest, this one was much larger. Its gnarled roots twisted through the broken ground like a sleeping leviathan, and its leaves glowed with a deep, pulsating red, like blood flowing through veins.
The closer Kael looked, the more it seemed like the tree was breathing. He detected life signs from it using his [Beast Sense].
