The archway deposited them into a furnace.
The heat hit Nathan first.
Dry, ashen air that scraped the throat and made the lungs ache despite the Winterhart cloak's enchantment. The corridor ahead was narrow and winding, walls of scorched black stone veined with glowing red mana that pulsed like arteries beneath the surface.
The floor was uneven volcanic rock, sharp-edged and treacherous. Distant rumbles echoed through the stone, the Tower breathing, or magma shifting below, or something worse.
Nathan's interface flickered.
[Tower of Ash: Floor 1.]
[Objective: Clear all enemies.]
The party settled into formation with ease. Mirko at the front, already in humanoid form, her sword shining in the crimson half-light. Elise's Frost Golem beside her, eight feet of crystalline ice radiating cold that created a small pocket of tolerable temperature around the vanguard. The golem's presence was a defiance against the Tower's heat, a reminder that even here, winter could bite.
