The world went quiet for a single breath.
Then the rift screamed.
It didn't open with grace or elegance. It tore through reality like claws raking through silk. Mana surged outward like a tidal wave. Stones cracked, air rippled, and the mountains themselves seemed to flinch.
The Rift War had begun.
From within the glowing wound, they came.
At first, shadows, long-limbed things crawling on reverse-jointed legs. Then bodies. Hulking ogres with iron runes burned into their hides. Warped trolls draped in stolen armor. Wargs stitched from corpses. Bone-crested goblins that didn't blink, didn't scream, just charged.
Behind them: a wall of fog. Dark, oily, whispering.
The enemy didn't pour out, they exploded.
From Darin's vantage, he saw it all.
"Signal the strike teams," he ordered, mana flaring through his throat. "Wave One—go!"
The horns blared from three points of the summit.
The battle began.
[Alvin – East Flank, Thermospire Approach]
