When Xavier had first jumped into that portal, he hadn't known what was waiting on the other side. No map, no guarantee, no safety net — just the decision and the drop.
Coming back was a different matter entirely. He stepped through at his own pace, unhurried, with the quiet and settled weight of someone who had already paid the price for what came next and was simply collecting what he was owed.
The bloodstained plain greeted him like an old, unpleasant acquaintance.
Goblins still roamed the open ground, their guttural roars cutting through the cold air, their movements restless and disorganized. But the numbers had thinned noticeably compared to when he had left. The field that had once been a wall of green-skinned bodies now had gaps in it — spaces where there had once been mass and noise, now only stained earth and scattered remnants.
Xavier took a measured look at his immediate surroundings, cataloguing exits and threats out of habit. Then his gaze dropped to his right hand.
