After the world flipped over several times, pain shot through Renato's entire body.
The dull ache gradually faded, though his head still spun. Renato forced himself to stay conscious.
There was none of the churning nausea that came with teleportation. Judging by the scattered pieces of the surrounding structures, he had probably dispelled the Elder Brain's spell, only to fall through when the passage shattered.
He was still in the mind flayers' lair. Collapsing here meant death.
Leaning on his longsword, Renato struggled to his feet. His gaze swept past the burning ruins on the ground and into the distance.
Ahead, an arched chitin dome seemed to have been smashed by some monster. The surrounding walls had vanished with it, leaving an unobstructed view all the way to the far end.
Flames burned on the severed walls of flesh. Black smoke rose, revealing a scene of carnage.
In the flickering firelight, Renato made out a deep-purple dragon the size of a small mountain resting upon a vast pool.
Its body was unimaginably huge. Even curled up, it towered several times higher than the aberrations guarding it.
Densely packed, dark-purple scales gleamed coldly. Its long neck curved downward, its smooth, salamander-like head hanging low, its eyes closed.
This was...
Renato looked above the brine pool. A ring of platforms extended outward from the lair's walls, and the opening of the Great Cavern led straight into the rock above...
This was the Elder Brain's brain pool!
Renato could not see the Elder Brain. Perhaps it was hiding underwater. But the dragon floating on the surface had to be Gattholex, "Lightless Decay."
The open ground around the brain pool was littered with sprawled corpses.
Many were misshapen monsters Renato could barely describe. They must have been the experimental subjects the four of them