Ares plunged into the darkness, his body twisting as he fell. The wind howled past his ears, and his stomach lurched with the sickening weightlessness of freefall. Rocks tumbled beside him, some scraping past his limbs, sending jolts of pain through his already battered body.

  System: [WARNING—Freefall Detected]

  No kidding!

  His mind raced, but there was nothing to grab onto—just endless black. The only thing he could do was brace for impact.

  Then—agony.

  His back slammed into something hard. The force rattled his bones, knocking the breath from his lungs. He bounced off the uneven rock, tumbling again before landing with a brutal thud on cold stone.

  Everything hurt.

  Ares lay there, gasping, his vision swimming. His limbs felt heavy, his chest ached, and his body screamed in protest with every shallow breath.

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  System: [ALERT—Major injuries sustained. Stabilizing…]

  A faint warmth spread through his body. Not enough to erase the pain, but enough to dull the worst of it. His ribs still felt like they were on fire, and he was pretty sure he’d twisted his ankle on impact.

  Slowly, he cracked his eyes open.

  It was dark—darker than anything he had ever experienced. The bioluminescent moss that dotted the upper caves was gone. No flickering torchlight, no glow from the unknown energy inside him. Just pitch-black emptiness.

  He forced himself to sit up, wincing. His hands traced over the cold stone beneath him. It wasn’t rough like the rest of the cave—no jagged edges or crumbling debris. Instead, the surface was… smooth.

  Too smooth.

  Ares frowned. This didn’t feel natural.

  Then, in the distance—

  A faint blue glow.

  It was dim, barely more than a whisper of light, but it was enough to reveal something impossible.

  Stone walls stretched out before him, unnaturally straight and even. Faded carvings lined their surfaces—symbols he couldn’t understand, their edges worn with age. The ground beneath him was the same, laid out in precise, geometric patterns.

  Not a cave.

  A ruin.

  Ares exhaled sharply, trying to ignore the chill creeping down his spine.

  Where the hell am I?

  The glow flickered. He turned his head toward its source, heart pounding.

  At the end of the ruined passageway, something pulsed with energy—dim, weak, but alive. It radiated the same unknown energy inside him, as if calling to him.

  And for the first time since arriving in this world, Ares wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.