The Condemned Descent

They sentenced Lucian Chevalier to die in the dark. He had other plans.

Beating a nobleman bloody for assaulting a servant girl is a crime in Valdris. Saving the girl? Also a crime, as it turns out. The reward for both: a one-way trip to the Slaughter Grounds, where the kingdom sends its enemies to die and calls it justice.

The labyrinth shifts. Monsters spawn from corrupted magic. The System hands out levels to anyone who survives long enough to kill-reach Level 10 and walk free. Most prisoners don't last two days. Lucian intends to be the exception, but he fights wild, bleeds easy, and the dark holds worse things than he knows.

He won't make it alone. The condemned don't trust easy, and the dark keeps thinning their number-but a few prove harder to kill, and harder to shake. A noble who can't keep his shield up. A thief who lifts everything but her guard. A veteran who'd rather die than admit he cares. What starts as a bargain hardens into something more dangerous-loyalty. Far below, an ancient power stirs, one that has learned the taste of their magic.

Can a handful of broken outcasts carve a way out of the dark-or will the Grounds swallow them like all the rest?

Pick up THE CONDEMNED DESCENT and step into the Slaughter Grounds.