Aurelian's grin faded into something sharper—less mirthful, more alert. "They weren't joking this time."
Selphine nodded slowly, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the updated projection. "No. This isn't drama anymore. This is war by design."
The illusion field zoomed in with an almost predatory focus. What had once been carefully curated biomes now churned into each other—acid lakes draining into collapsing forest paths, frozen peaks crumbling into molten fissures. The borders between trial zones buckled like stressed glass, fragments of sky itself shattering and raining down as flaming meteors.
And then—
The monsters came.
Not as scattered skirmishes.
But as waves.
Creatures poured out from the edges of the convergence zones—misshapen beasts of mana and tooth, spell-fused amalgamations that moved with purpose. Some crawled, others flew. A few phased in and out of existence entirely, flickering like strobe-lit ghosts. The sheer volume was staggering.
