The tunnel ended at the lip of a huge underground deep pit: The Great Deep gap of Hyphae.
The deep gap was four hundred feet deep and three hundred yards wide, a huge natural rift cutting through the living bedrock of the floating mountain. But where there should have been empty air, the void was choked with a monstrous, multi-tiered web of fungal silk that stretched from wall to wall like the web of a cosmic spider.
The silk threads were not delicate cobwebs. They were thick, rope-like cables of hardened mycelium, three inches in width and pulsing with rhythmic surges of crimson and violet mana. Spanning between the cables were semi-clear sheets of sticky, hungry membrane designed to capture and dissolve anything that fell into the rift.
Suspended within the web were dozens of hard-shelled egg-sacs, each the size of an oil drum.
As Arthur’s squad stepped onto the cliff edge, the egg-sacs began to convulse wildly. With sickening tearing sounds, the stringy membranes burst, releasing swarms of monstrous winged abominations. Spore-Wasps the size of eagles, their abdomens dripping with neurotoxic venom, and Fungal Mantises with razor-sharp hard shell scythes that clicked and clattered in the humid air.
Hundreds of many-sided compound eyes locked onto Arthur’s tactical lantern.
