The battlefield smelled of copper and smoke.
Shards of ruined buildings jutted like broken teeth across the streets of Thorne Hallow, fires l*****g at the edges of the night. The Cyclop’s roar still rang in the survivors’ ears, even as silence now pressed against the ruin. The silence of too many bodies lying still.
Captain Idris lay face down in the rubble, his ribs screaming every time he drew breath. He clawed for his glaive, fingers trembling, vision spotted with black. Above him, the night rippled with a faint hum, the last vestiges of the portal slowly collapsing. His squad’s screams replayed in his skull. Jason’s broken body. Yara’s last cry. Too many gone. Too many.
But Beta wasn’t the only one.
***
Command Center, Necrus Central
General Holbrook’s voice was iron, but his eye
