Chapter 1485: The Abyss

The forest loomed, a silent titan against the fading light. Towering trees, their bark gnarled and black as aged leather, clawed at the twilight sky. Their branches, thick and heavy, intertwined to form a dense canopy that choked out the sun's last rays, leaving the forest floor in an inky gloom. An unsettling silence hung in the air, broken only by the occasional rustle of unseen creatures or the creak of a straining branch under its own weight.

The air itself felt thick and ancient, heavy with the scent of damp earth, decaying leaves, and something else, something deeper and more primal – the musky odor of things long undisturbed. Vines, like petrified serpents, snaked across the forest floor, their sinuous forms adding to the sense of untamed wilderness.