We advanced in formation, weapons ready, senses stretched tight as wire. Alan and Richard took point with shields raised, Marcus just behind them. Nicole stayed near the rear, protecting our more vulnerable ranged fighters from ambush, with me positioned just ahead of her. I summoned minions through Vast Shadows to bolster our defenses.

  The rest of us followed at proper spacing, eyes scanning battlements, towers, and shadowed parapets. The castle loomed ahead, its stone darkened to a near-black sheen that drank in light rather than reflecting it. Narrow towers rose at uneven intervals, their silhouettes jagged against the blood-tinged sky.

  Nothing moved at our advance. There were no horns, no howls of impending combat. No demon silhouettes pacing the walls—only gargoyle-like figures we weren’t quite sure were living or dead.

  The structure eerily waited for our arrival.

  Jessica slowed first, raising a hand. We halted instantly. She crouched, studying the ground near the outer perimeter—old stone, cracked and weathered, but marred by fresh tracks.

  “The wave passed through here hours ago.” She glanced back at me, unease flickering across her face. “It’s open now, though,” she added quietly. “Too open.”

  As if responding to her words, the massive doors at the castle’s front shifted.

  Stone groaned against stone as they parted inward, slow and smooth, revealing darkness beyond. There was no dramatic flare of light, no rush of heat or sound. Just an open invitation into shadow.

  Richard muttered under his breath. “I hate that.”

  “Yeah,” Alan replied. “Me too.”

  We waited several seconds before daring to move forward. Nothing followed the opening of the doors. No trap triggered. No ambush sprang. Just a cold invitation.

  Eventually, Alan stepped forward. One heavy boot crossed the threshold, then another. He paused, shield angled slightly inward, testing. When nothing happened, the rest of us followed, one by one, passing beneath the stone archway.

  The moment Nicole crossed last, the doors closed.

  They sealed with deliberate finality, stone sliding into stone until the sound vanished entirely. None of us noticed before it was too late to stop—what lay ahead proving too consuming to look away from.

  Nicole confirmed it first. “It’s closed in.” She traced the wall with her hand, searching for a seam or gap to pry into.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Glenn said, biting his nails anxiously.

  Where the doors had been, there was now solid stone. No seam. No break. No hinges or marks of recent movement. Just uninterrupted rock, cold and ancient, as though it had always been that way.

  A quiet settled over us.

  I stepped closer, running a gloved hand along the surface. The stone was smooth, unyielding, and utterly indifferent. No give. No response to pressure or mana. It wasn’t sealed shut, it was one solid piece.

  “Well,” Maria said after a moment, voice low, “that’s comforting.” No one could laugh.

  The space beyond the entrance opened into a broad hall, its ceiling rising far higher than the castle’s exterior should have allowed. Pillars lined the walls at irregular intervals, their surfaces etched with patterns that made my eyes slide off them if I stared too long. Torch sconces burned with dull crimson flame, shedding just enough light to see without ever fully dispelling the shadows.

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  The proportions were wrong.

  The hall stretched farther than it should have. The ceiling soared too high. Sound carried oddly, footsteps echoing with delays that didn’t quite match their source.

  We moved forward slowly, Jessica guiding our path.

  The deeper we went, the more the structure revealed its dishonesty. Corridors branched and curved without logic. Staircases ascended and descended inconsistently. A turn that should have taken us beneath a tower instead opened into a chamber large enough to house the entire castle footprint twice over.

  “This place is bigger on the inside,” Lucas said flatly.

  “Significantly,” Anna added.

  Glenn walked with his head slightly bowed, eyes darting to walls, floors, and ceilings as though reading something the rest of us couldn’t see. His hands twitched near his inventory interface, fingers flexing in nervous patterns. Sweat beaded at his temples despite the cool air.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder.

  “Ah… yeah.” His response did nothing to reassure me. The fear in his eyes was unmistakable.

  We pressed on regardless.

  The first patrol found us at a junction where three corridors converged. The floor dipped subtly, stone worn smooth by heavy traffic. The air smelled faintly metallic.

  They emerged without any pretense of subtlety—three massive shapes lumbering into view from the left corridor.

  Ogres.

  Not demons in the twisted, warped sense we were used to. These were closer to human-beasts, given rough intelligence. Towering frames wrapped in dense muscle, skin like cracked stone, arms ending in fists the size of shields. Each carried a crude weapon—an iron maul, a slab of sharpened rock, a length of reinforced timber studded with spikes.

  No magic. No aura. Just raw physical presence.

  Alan raised his shield. “Ready.”

  They charged—and Alan met them head-on, Richard surging in beside him.

  The impact shook the hall. Alan and Richard absorbed the brunt, shields locking together as the first ogre slammed into them. The force drove them back half a step, boots scraping stone, but they held. Marcus moved in immediately to brace for the second.

  Behind them, the rest of us moved as one.

  Jessica’s arrows sank deep into eye sockets and throats. Evee’s new rifle groaned in controlled bursts, each shot punching through muscle and bone. I wasn’t sure if the sound of the weapon firing was worse than the sound of its projectiles on impact.

  Maria’s arrows burned through tendons, collapsing one ogre mid-stride. Lucas and Bruce slipped between legs and limbs, Windslash tearing through hamstrings before the creatures even realized he was there. Anna’s frost magic locked the battlefield down.

  The fight lasted seconds.

  When the last ogre fell, its body hit the stone with a final, echoing thud.

  We waited. No reinforcements came. No alarms sounded.

  “That’s it?” Maria asked, confidence creeping in. “Do you think if I shot Piercing Verdict up your ass it would come out the other side and still deal full damage?” She eyed Richard with mock menace.

  He choked. “Please don’t.”

  “They were guards,” Alan said. “Nothing more.”

  We advanced again, tension tightening instead of easing.

  Traps followed.

  The first nearly took Nicole’s leg—a pressure plate hidden beneath dust that triggered a sweeping blade from the wall. Only Jessica’s sharp warning saved her. After that, we slowed even further.

  Glyphs etched into the floor released bursts of corrosive mist. Narrow corridors funneled us into choke points clearly designed to delay or maim rather than kill outright.

  What unsettled me most was how selective it all felt. A lone ogre pacing the hall hadn’t triggered a thing. My minions didn’t either. Something in the structure distinguished between us and them.

  Jessica stayed ahead now, constantly crouched, fingers brushing stone, eyes tracking disturbances too subtle for the rest of us. My Sixth Sense was useless here—just a constant drone. She guided us with growing certainty, marking paths only she could read.

  About fifteen minutes in, Glenn stopped.

  “Wait.”

  The word froze us.

  “I… I need to say something.”

  Alan turned. “Say it.”

  Glenn swallowed. “I can’t feel the teleporter.” Silence followed.

  “That’s not funny,” Maria said.

  “I’m not joking,” Glenn replied. “The feeling is gone.”

  “That shouldn’t be possible,” Anna said carefully. “You bound it. You said yourself spatial anchors don’t just—”

  “They do if you move the space,” Glenn interrupted. His voice cracked. “Or if the space moves you.” Understanding settled in. “This place,” he said, gesturing weakly, “it’s not just a structure. It’s a transit node. A massive one.”

  Lucas exhaled sharply. “You’re saying this whole thing is a teleporter?”