Two years had passed since the Leviathan fell.
But the world never returned to normal.
The sky sometimes flickered at night like cracked glass. Strange lights appeared over the ocean. Animals behaved oddly, sensing something humans could not.
And occasionally… something slipped through.
Ariya stood on the edge of a rooftop, bow in hand.
Below, the city lights flickered. Sirens echoed through the streets.
"Movement in the alley," Kael said through the communicator.
Ariya jumped down from the rooftop like a shadow.
The creature appeared seconds later.
Its body was half smoke, half bone. Its claws scraped the asphalt as it crawled from a thin ripple in the air.
Ariya didn't hesitate.
Her arrow struck its skull.
The creature dissolved into black dust.
Another monster dead.
Another reminder.
The Veil might be sealed…
But something inside it was still bleeding into their world.
Not everyone feared the changes.
Some welcomed them.
Rumors spread of a growing group called The Fractured Dawn.
They believed the Veil should be opened again.
They believed other worlds held power humans deserved.
Ariya didn't trust them.
One night, she and Kael followed a lead to an abandoned warehouse.
Inside, dozens of people stood in a circle around a glowing crack in reality.
A man stepped forward.
Tall.
Scarred.
Ariya recognized him instantly.
One of the fighters she had freed from the arena.
"You," she said.
His smile was cold.
"You closed the Veil," he replied. "You stole our future."
The crack behind him widened.
And something inside it began to move.
The rift exploded open.
Freezing wind blasted through the warehouse.
Ice spread across the floor instantly.
A massive creature stepped out—white scales, glowing blue eyes, wings of frost.
An Ice Drake.
The cultists cheered.
The monster roared.
Then it attacked everyone.
Ariya rolled beneath its claws, firing arrow after arrow.
Kael leapt onto its back, driving his glowing blade between its scales.
The drake smashed through the wall, flying into the night sky.
Ariya chased it across rooftops.
Finally she fired one perfect arrow through its eye.
The beast crashed into the river below.
Silence returned.
But the damage was done.
The Veil was breaking again.