The rift tore wider.
Glass rained down in glittering sheets as the skyline bent, skyscrapers leaning at angles no engineer had ever dreamed of. The wound in the sky pulsed like a heartbeat, shadows sliding along its edges. Something vast pressed against it from the other side.
Hunters arriving from the western quadrant skidded to a halt at the sight. A dozen A-ranks, three S-ranks. Their armor was scorched, their blades bloodied, but they rallied as Selindra's voice snapped across comms.
"Form perimeter! West and north evacuation grids, reinforce sector corridors!"
They obeyed instantly, relief plain on their faces at the sight of her. At the sight of Varik.
And then their eyes landed on Lucen.
The mantle still burned from his shoulders, wings of black fire curling outward like blades of night. His veins pulsed with light not human, his grin sharp as a knife. Dozens of crushed abyssal corpses lay scattered around him, twitching under the invisible weight he'd unleashed.
