The sky tore itself apart. Flames of red, gold, and violet swirled across the horizon, painting a world neither of them had ever known. The five of them—strangers to each other, strangers to this land—stood on a jagged cliff, staring down into the valley below, where ruins and wild forests stretched farther than the eye could see.
Arion's chest heaved as the wind whipped through his brown hair. His beasts, normally loyal and fierce, trembled at the strange energy radiating from the world itself. He knelt, resting his hand on the largest of them, a wolf with eyes like molten silver.
"This… isn't our world," he muttered, voice low, almost a whisper, but the others heard.
Kael, silver-haired and sharp-eyed, adjusted the staff on his back. His fingers itched for magic, but the energy here—wild, untamed—reacted violently to even the smallest sparks. Sparks arced off the ground, fizzing out before they could form into anything useful.
"We're… together now," he said finally, eyes scanning the horizon. "And apparently… we're not in any place I know."
Sylas shifted, muscles tense under the sunlight. Scars lined his arms and torso, reminders of a past that had hardened him. The curse he carried burned faintly, a low heat against his skin. "Great. Just another messed-up world to survive in." His voice carried no excitement, only raw practicality.
Lior, the strategist, knelt on one knee and drew lines in the dirt with a finger, mapping the terrain as best he could from this height. "We don't know the rules yet. Magic, beasts, relics… everything might be different. First rule: observe. Then act."
Erynn, clutching a small relic that pulsed faintly with golden light, kept her gaze on the ruins below. Her knowledge of relics told her one thing with terrifying certainty: this world had ancient power, far older than anything in their previous lives. "If we survive here… it won't be by luck."
A distant roar shook the valley. Dust and smoke rose from the forest below, and Arion's wolf growled, bristling. Five pairs of eyes locked on the sound. The first test had come unannounced.
Kael tightened his grip on his staff, his lips curling into a calculated smile. "Then we test it together."
No one knew how long they had been transported here. No one knew why the world had summoned them, or why it had chosen five.
But the land itself seemed alive, watching, waiting for their first move.
A shadow emerged over the treeline. Massive claws, scales glinting in the fading sunlight, and eyes like coals that burned with hunger. Arion's beast lunged forward, protective, snarling, as the others readied themselves.
The cliff wind carried a single thought through their minds simultaneously:
This world doesn't forgive the unprepared.
And in that instant, they realized something else:
They wouldn't survive alone.
The five of them, strangers moments ago, were now bound by fate—and by necessity.
The first battle had begun.