The surface of the magma lake rushed up to meet them, a terrifying, bubbling expanse of angry red and blinding yellow. But there was no splash. There was no sudden, agonizing incineration.
When they broke the surface of the liquid fire, the skin-tight sphere of Kael's solar plasma simply parted the magma around them.
The descent was profoundly surreal. Valeria was entirely submerged in the literal blood of the planet. Outside the golden bubble, the liquid rock was unimaginably dense, swirling in massive, sluggish currents of extreme heat and crushing pressure. Yet, inside the aura, the air remained perfectly crisp and cool. The violent, deafening roar of the surface instantly vanished, replaced by a heavy, muffled silence that felt ancient and absolute.
