Earlier in the capital of Tulmud, just as the rift was closing and the suffocating presence of Van Dijk's descent faded, the battlefield was still shuddering from aftershocks. Stone dust drifted in the air like ash from a dying fire, settling over corpses and cracked cobblestones. The treacherous fanged werewolf stood amidst it all, his chest heaving in a rhythm too slow to match his fury, his fur glistening with blood both his own and borrowed. His muzzle curled back into a snarl, the sound low at first, then erupting into a full, throat-rending howl. It carried across the broken city like thunder.