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Hector fell with the platform, and when he neared the bottom, he leapt off again, creating a sudden slide to catch himself. He eased down through the smooth iron tube and landed comfortably on both feet.

Garovel floated over. ‘Showing off for me?’

He laughed as he annihilated his work. “Never hurts to practice. Though, to be honest, I was kind of expecting to faceplant on that one...”

‘I’m glad you’re not one to let a little thing like the threat of grievous bodily harm stop you.’

He held up his floodlight to be sure he hadn’t broken it and was glad to find it in working order. “By the way, uh... I’m pretty sure I achieved emergence when I was fighting Harper.”

‘Oh? That’s excellent.’

“Not sure what all I can do now.”

‘Looks like we’ll have plenty of space and opportunity to figure that out.’ The reaper floated slowly forward, rounding the base of the tower as Hector followed.

Abruptly, they were confronted with a broad view of what seemed like the entire castle, though the floodlight could only illuminate so much at once. Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Hector gradually counted eight towers in total, all hanging down from the ceiling in a ring formation directly above him. Cavern rocks rose up from the floor to cradle each structure, save one, which looked to be half-destroyed with a good chunk of its remnants now hanging freely in mid-air. At the top, Hector could see a series of bridging walkways connecting everything and angled support beams for them extending out from each adjacent tower.

“Holy shit...”

‘Yeah... I’m starting to see why Voreese wanted this place.’

“People think this is an eyesore? It looks incredible...”

‘Hmm.’

The towers varied in size somewhat, but even the ruined one must’ve still had about ten stories. The largest, though, stood directly in front of him. It didn’t grow thinner like the others as it reached the base of the cave, and its stone looked a bit different as well, darker and more intricately carved. By itself, it must have had over a hundred windows just on this side alone, as well as a couple of protrusions into the rock halfway up its massive body.