Round 15

The air inside the crumbling tower grew thick with tension as the ancient magic pulsed faster, the wards around the pit flaring brighter with each passing second. Merrin’s screams had stopped echoing up from below—the sudden silence was far more terrifying than her cries had been. Jeane knew they didn't have much time left before whatever was powering those runes finished its work down in the depths. She needed to find a way to break through the magical barrier, and fast.

Halie felt a chill run down her spine as she watched the symbols on the pressure plates begin to glow with an ominous light. This was bad—very bad. The last thing they needed was for this trap to activate something even worse than what Merrin was already facing. She turned to Elric, her voice tight with urgency. "We need to know what those runes do before we try anything else," she insisted. "If there's a way to disable them safely, we have to find it."