The last Monster blocking their way took a precisely aimed ice spike from Vivian through its brain, followed by Greg's sticky firebomb, and dissolved into motes of light with an agonized howl.
The clamor of battle abruptly faded, leaving only their slightly hurried breathing, unusually distinct in the vast, silent surroundings.
Greg raised his head. With nothing obstructing his view anymore, he could finally take in the entire temple at close range.
"Tsk, this modeling, this atmosphere... The devs really didn't want players missing the fact that this was the final boss room."
Even though he had prepared himself, even though he had stared at its pixel art or rendered screenshots countless times through a screen, Greg still felt an undeniable surge of novelty and oppressive weight when the actual building brutally filled his vision, bearing the accumulated erosion of millions of years and a texture that was utterly real.
What stood before him was not a sacred, majestic temple in any traditional sense.
It looked more like a grotesque creation some mad giant god had haphazardly piled together from fragments of nightmares and scars of the world.
The entire structure leaned at an irregular angle, riddled with fractures, as though it might collapse to one side at any moment, yet some invisible force held it firmly in that uncanny balance.
The stone forming its main structure was not a uniform grayish white, but a mixture of dark red, deep purple, pitch black, and great patches of sickly green moss resembling festering sores. The colors were filthy and oppressive.
Countless twisted human reliefs crawled across the towering walls and broken columns. Their poses radiated despair and an eerie sense of sacrifice, casting distorted, wavering shadows in the dim light that seemed to writhe faintly like living things.
No matter how