Ethan's gaze snapped toward the source of the sound.
Out on the dim, ashen plain, the ground had somehow filled with black creatures—so many they looked like a living tide. Their bodies were the color of charred coal, their shells crisscrossed with jagged cracks. Inside each fissure, unstable black energy flickered, like something trying to claw its way out.
They resembled enormous ants, but their heads were grotesquely twisted. Two massive, curved horns jutted from each skull, the surface of those horns writhing as if alive.
Every time the horns quivered, a bolt of pitch-black lightning ripped free. It tore through the air with a shriek, slamming into the sky hard enough to make the entire space shudder.
The air grew heavy. Breathing turned difficult. Almost instinctively, everyone began channeling their power.
