The first tremor rolled through the battlefield like the growl of an unseen beast. Everyone—friend and foe alike—paused. Altharion's blade hung mid-swing, his eyes narrowing as the air thickened, the colors around them dulling as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Then, the sky cracked.
Not figuratively—an actual fracture of light split the heavens, jagged and glowing like molten glass. Through it, something massive stirred, its silhouette distorted as though viewed through boiling water. Each movement sent ripples through the rift, and the ground below groaned in response.
"That… is not supposed to be possible," Kaelis whispered, his voice trembling despite the power coursing through him.
Liora's staff pulsed with light, her face pale. "That's no summoning. That's a tear in the Veil."
The enemy forces hesitated, some stumbling back in confusion, others snarling with desperate rage. But from the rift came a sound—low, resonant, and ancient. It wasn't language, yet it clawed into the mind, flooding it with images of desolation and burning cities.
Altharion stepped forward, his qi flaring like a storm-tossed sea. "We end this now, before it steps through."
He lunged at the opposing warlord, a hulking figure wrapped in dark armor and crimson energy. Their blades met in a shockwave that flattened the nearby terrain. Sparks of qi and corrupted magic danced around them, tearing through the air like wild lightning.
The warlord's laughter was a harsh rasp. "You can't stop the convergence! Even if you kill me, the gate will open."
"Then I'll kill you and close it," Altharion growled, his hybrid system feeding him both raw elemental power and refined sword technique. His strikes came faster, heavier, each one layered with qi bursts that shattered the warlord's defenses bit by bit.
Behind them, Kaelis and Liora rallied their side. Arrows of light cut through corrupted beasts. Flame-laced winds swept enemy soldiers into disarray. The ground split, swallowing entire ranks before sealing shut. Yet, with every enemy that fell, the rift widened, the fractures spreading until the entire horizon seemed ready to break apart.
A shadow fell across the field. Something on the other side of the tear had moved closer—an eye, impossibly large, with a slit pupil that rotated like a grinding wheel. Looking into it made the heart stutter and the lungs seize.
Altharion didn't look. He knew what would happen if he did. Instead, he drew deep on his core, activating the hybrid system's Overdrive mode. His body burned with qi output so intense that cracks formed in his armor and along his skin, glowing like magma veins.
One final strike—he had to make it count.
He feinted left, then spun, blade singing with condensed elemental force. The warlord tried to block, but Altharion's sword cleaved through armor, flesh, and the blackened core that pulsed in his chest.
The warlord staggered, coughing blood and laughing weakly. "You think you've won? That… thing was never under my control."
His body collapsed, dissolving into ash.
Immediately, the rift shuddered, but instead of closing, it flared wider. The eye blinked, and a claw—larger than a fortress tower—pierced through, rending reality further. The battlefield erupted into chaos as friend and foe alike screamed.
Kaelis yelled over the cacophony. "Altharion! We need a seal, now!"
Liora was already moving, runes spilling from her staff into the air, forming a spiraling ward. "Buy me thirty seconds!"
Altharion planted himself between the rift and his allies. He didn't have thirty seconds in him—but he'd give them anyway. His qi surged again, reckless and untamed, as he launched himself at the claw, meeting the cosmic intrusion head-on.
The sky screamed.