The anomaly stepped from the ruptured void.
It made no sound as it descended, its bare, elongated feet hovering an inch above the obsidian stone. Radiant, silver-green light bled from its translucent skin, distorting the air like heat shimmer off a summer highway.
Nathan held his stance, his muscles trembling under the sheer draw-weight of the fully charged Focus Shot. The arrowhead burned like a captured star. Forty seconds of charge remained. He didn't release.
Something was fundamentally wrong.
The entity standing before the pulsing throne was tall and impossibly thin, its architecture built from the same condensed mana as the sphere. But its face was no longer a blank, featureless mask. It was glitching. The features writhed and spasmed, rapidly cycling through shapes and structures like a corrupted broadcast struggling to find a signal.
And then, it spoke.
"Mommy?"
Nathan's breath caught in his throat.
