A/N
The character illustration is out, you can check it out in the novel page and vote for your favorite character. Thank you.
The sky above Blackridge was grey. Not cloudy—just… stained. Like something had burned the blue out of it. The sun was rising slow, but its light didn't reach here. Only a cold kind of gold that touched nothing.
The gate loomed ahead like a wound in the world.
Tall. Twisted. Its surface shimmered with warped reflections, like it was breathing slowly, waiting. A jagged black ring encased the portal, with glyphs carved deep into the earth around it—old, faded runes that pulsed with red-orange flickers. The wind around the area didn't move right. It circled, like the air was confused. Wrong.
Class Zero stood at the edge of the gate's boundary.
Everyone was fully geared.
