Beasts of the Eternal City

Previously

…With that, she melted back into the shadows, leaving Archius alone with the coiled serpent and the daunting task ahead. He looked at the vent, then back at the direction Lyra had gone. He had been given a chance, a sliver of hope in the suffocating darkness. He would not waste it. He would face the beasts, he would face the Emperor’s forces, he would find his way home. The embers of hope within him, fanned by Lyra’s gambit, began to glow brighter, a silent promise of defiance against the Eternal City.