For months, the five continents had been preparing for a war that refused to begin.
That had almost become its own kind of normal.
The pressure remained.
Everyone could feel it.
Yet the expected blow never came.
Until the first reports arrived concerning something no one had been watching closely enough.
They were not about the five continents.
They were about what was happening in the void.
•••
Lucien was reviewing several Grace System expansion reports when a priority message entered his communication network.
He opened it without much concern at first.
A few breaths later, the other reports were forgotten.
His expression gradually hardened.
The message had come from one of the Shadow Spies planted within a major faction.
One of that faction's conquered worlds was under attack.
Black Mass monsters had appeared beyond the outer barrier in numbers large enough to force the stationed defenders into battle.
