The west path did not announce itself .
It simply became something else .
The Bleed Bark fissures were wider here — the older specimens producing the specific topography of bark that had been weeping sap for centuries rather than decades , the fissure networks deeper , the red that ran from them darker and more viscous than the outer sections had produced . The bloodglow illumination cycling its standard crimson to near-black to crimson but at this depth the near-black phase seemed to last fractionally longer than it had at the Heart's boundary . The specific quality of light that was not diminishing but withdrawing . Retreating into the bark and the root systems and the fissure depths at intervals and then returning — not fully .
Team Noctis moved through it .
