[First Person - Theo]
Morveth did not move first.
It simply hovered at the center of the vast cathedral-like cavern, bone plates layered at wrong angles, black tar pulsing faintly between the gaps. The violet veins beneath its structure throbbed slowly, almost lazily, as if none of this required urgency.
The pressure increased, not in an explosive way or dramatic.
Just heavier.
Like the air itself had thickened into something you had to push through to breathe.
Kyrene stepped half a pace forward.
Astrae shifted her stance beside me, light gathering faintly around her hands despite the strain it put on her.
Morveth's elongated skull tilted.
"You are aware," it rasped calmly, "that none who reach this depth leave by choice."
Kyrene answered flatly, "Yeah. We're not here by choice either."
The lich's split jaw opened slightly, translucent tendrils twitching within.
"Such defiance, such confidence," it murmured. "And yet… Predictable."
