The ground did not simply c***k.
It opened.
A deep, resonant groan rolled through Nightfall, vibrating through bone and blood alike. Trees shuddered as their roots split apart, earth folding inward as though something vast were pushing itself awake from a long, deliberate sleep.
Draven tightened his hold on Elara as the silver boundary behind them pulsed once steady, intact but strangely distant now, like it no longer recognized the threat rising below.
“That’s not from the rift,” he muttered, eyes scanning the collapsing terrain. “It was already here.”
Elara stirred weakly in his arms, her lashes fluttering as awareness returned in fragments. Pain radiated through her body, deep and echoing, not sharp but heavy like exhaustion layered with something colder.
“What… did I miss?” she w
