The portal looked wrong.
Not dangerous—wrong.Like someone had punched a hole through the world and painted over it with blood and static.
The East Hub staging ground sat on the edge of the industrial district, steel cranes hunched over empty lots, emergency floodlights washing everything in hard white. The air hummed with mana. Even the asphalt seemed to flinch.
The gate shimmered ten meters tall, oval, slow-turning, its center a liquid red swirl shot through with black threads that moved like veins. Around it, containment pylons crackled, trying to pretend they were strong enough.
[Objective: Enter the Crimson Verge.][Warning: Dimensional Instability — Sustained Exposure Hazard Level: S-Rank.]
Yeah. No kidding.
Selene stood a few paces away, scanning the readouts on a tablet. "Stabilizer field's fluctuating by three percent," she said. "That's the lowest it's going to get."
"Good," I said. "Wouldn't want it too safe."
