Page 111 of The Hyena’s Guardian

The room dwarfed every chamber they had passed so far. A circular abyss opened at the center of the floor, descending farther into darkness than Matt could fully comprehend.

Black stone bridges crossed the void toward a raised platform suspended over its center.

And on that platform stood a throne. Not carved. Grown.

Black mineral spread upward from the stone beneath it in twisted layers resembling roots or exposed veins hardened into crystal. The structure towered above the platform itself, jagged and asymmetrical, as though the mountain had formed it naturally around something sitting inside.

Deep red light pulsed from the abyss in time with the breathing.

Like the heartbeat of something buried alive.

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Even Vale lowered her rifle cautiously as she stared across the cavern.

Then Matt saw the chains.

Massive lengths of black iron stretched from the walls surrounding the abyss toward the central platform. Dozens of chains disappeared into the throne itself, pulled tight beneath impossible strain while ancient symbols glowed faintly along every link.

Containment.

Or at least it had been once.

Several chains had already snapped, leaving broken lengths hanging motionless over the abyss below.

Theron stopped walking beside him.

Matt glanced over and felt the bond tighten again. Theron had gone completely still, his attention fixed on the throne with an expression Matt could not understand in that moment.

Theron’s features tightened, and grief nearly as old as the prison itself surfaced through his control.

“You’ve been here before,” Matt said.

Theron remained silent for several seconds, his eyes never leaving the throne.

“Yes,” he said at last.

The single word carried centuries inside it.

Baptiste stepped forward, his eyes sweeping across the suspended platform and the broken chains surrounding it. “The seal is collapsing faster than we thought.”

“No,”

Matt looked toward him.

Theron’s gaze never left the throne. “He’s breaking it from inside.”

The mountain answered. A deep pulse rolled upward through the abyss beneath their feet. The red glow brightened sharply for one terrible second before dimming again. Then came the sound.

A chain snapping somewhere below them in the dark. The crack echoed through the chamber like cannon fire. Several agents raised weapons instinctively toward the abyss.

Matt stepped closer to the edge before common sense could stop him.

Far below, something moved beneath the red glow surrounding the abyss.

As Matt’s eyes adjusted to the scale, the branching formations resolved into an enormous circulatory network spreading through the mountain. Black mineral pulsed through the stone like blood moving through a living body, each steady wave carrying the same rhythm as the breathing echoing through the chamber.

At the center of that vast network, the First King stirred within the darkness under the throne.