Eddie’s attention was elsewhere. The long path from the surface ended at a tall gateway to his left; at the great space’s opposite end was an even bigger and more ornate arch. The crystal pillar’s glow came from beyond it, reflected by numerous large metal mirrors to illuminate the chamber. ‘What do you think this is? A church?’

‘Something a bit less spiritual.’ Her gaze traced a path from the room’s entrance to the archway. The fallen rocks had damaged several areas, but there was a clearly defined route through it – and one area contained the remains of cages. ‘It’s a processing centre. The Veteres brought their prisoners down here in the sarcophagi, woke them up, then took them through there,’ she indicated the towering exit, ‘to the actual prison.’

‘Why not just leave ’em in the coffins? It’s not like they could get out.’

‘They must have had another way of . . . storing them.’ She went back to the tunnel. ‘We can’t get through there. We’ll have to keep going.’

They rejoined the two men, then continued up the passage. Before long, it opened out into the colossal crystal-lit shaft, leading to the narrow bridge Nina had seen from above. She dropped to a crouch at the tunnel’s mouth, looking across the gap.

At the bridge’s far end was an entrance to a chamber within the pillar. She couldn’t tell if it was natural or had been carved out, but she could see people inside.

Zan. Sidona. And Gadreel, the Nephilim leader having returned. The qi tracker was with them, guarded by a towering armoured warrior. Both he and Gadreel were armed with the deadly spear weapons. ‘Balls,’ Eddie muttered, lowering the rifle. ‘No way I can take ’em all out fast enough with this.’

Barney’s first sight of the giants left him staring in shock. ‘What . . . what are they doing?’

Sidona had her hands on both the crystal inside the tracker and the chamber’s glowing inner wall.

‘Nothing good,’ was Nina’s ominous reply.

Gadreel gazed at his wife as she shaped the power flowing around her – and far beyond. It was almost gloriously ironic that the bestial inferior race had built a weapon that used the world’s near-infinite forces for destruction, while being almost incapable of operating it themselves . . . and even more so now it was being turned against them.

They still had to rely on one human, however – for the moment. Zan was their only source of knowledge about the world the beasts had built. Typically for animals, Gadreel had learned from him, they had broken up into countless antagonistic packs selfishly battling for supremacy rather than uniting for the common good. ‘And which . . . tribe,’ the Nephilim leader asked, barely containing his contempt, ‘is the greatest danger to us?’