Chapter 5: The Awakening
Elise's breath came in short gasps as the submersible drifted toward the yawning doorway. The darkness beyond it was impossibly deep, like a chasm that led nowhere and everywhere at once.
Then the walls pulsed again. The whispering voices crescendoed, overlapping, merging into something almost human.
Enter.
Witness.
Be judged.
Tobias gritted his teeth, slamming his fist against the dead controls. "Elise, we need to get the hell out of here!"
But the submersible had no intention of stopping. The invisible force dragged them through the gateway, and as they crossed the threshold, the darkness came alive.
Shapes shifted at the edges of the light—figures, long-limbed and fluid, watching. The structures of the city stretched far beyond what they had seen before. Towering buildings stood half-buried in the silt, carved with symbols that glowed faintly, pulsing in rhythm with the whispers. The water itself felt heavier, charged with something Elise couldn't name.
They had entered the Lost City.
A deep vibration echoed from the ruins, a slow, deliberate heartbeat.
The door behind them slammed shut.
And then, as the whispering ceased, a single voice—low, resonant, inhuman—spoke:
"You are the first in centuries to return."
A shape loomed ahead.
Something waiting for them.