Three days passed.
Ninety-six individuals stood before the Void Realm gateway at the IGF Central Base on Planet Verenthos.
The gateway was enormous—a crystalline arch fifty meters tall and thirty meters wide, carved from translucent stone that pulsed with inner light. Runic symbols covered every inch of its surface, spiraling inward toward the center where a curtain of swirling darkness waited. The darkness shifted constantly. The air around the gateway hummed with compressed mana so dense it pressed against the skin like static.
Vvvvrrrr.
IGF soldiers lined the perimeter in formation. Barrier arrays glowed along the walls—hummm—ready to activate at a moment's notice.
The ninety-six cultivators stood in loose groups organized by affiliation.
