"Our prize awaits." Or'do rapped ironclad knuckles against a brass door, jarring it slightly in its ancient mountings.

I panted and gasped, stooped, frail, weak from exhaustion and bathed in the blood of my many foes. We had descended many layers, passing far into the Dark's lair, yet it was only now that Or'do had mentioned a goal of any kind. At length, I straightened and gestured to the door. "What prize might that be?"

"Beast Claws!" He grinned, squatting and working his fingers under the door, then heaving it upright with a sharp, shrill clang.

"Could we not have harvested those from our foes?" I asked, delirious.

"Not a Beast's claws, a weapon called the Beast's Claws. It will permit me tap into the Darkness, become one with the madness and wield it as once I held the Flame." He strode confidently into those depths, his Whirligig slashing the shadows, crunching through several overzealous rats that had dared spring his way.

"Tap into the Darkness?!" This jarred me back, burned away the weariness. "You can't subjugate the Dark!"

"We shall see." Waving for me to follow, he slogged deeper into the gloom, and uneasily I followed. Whatever came of this, I felt that it would be foul indeed.