The moment Riley stepped into the portal, everything changed. He felt like his body was being pulled through a long, narrow tunnel of wind and light. Colors flashed around him, blue, green, red, twisting and swirling so fast that he couldn't tell what was real and what wasn’t.His ears rang. His heart pounded and then, silence. Complete silence. Then a loud thud. Riley’s feet hit solid ground.He fell to one knee, gasping for breath. All around him was darkness. But not just ordinary darkness.This place felt cold, alive, like the shadows were watching him. The air was heavy. It smelled like metal, dust, and something else, something rotten.He slowly stood up and looked around. They were no longer on Earth. The others arrived behind him one by one. WHOOSH.Miller stumbled out of the portal, coughing. Doyle landed next, quiet and calm. Akira appeared shortly after, landing gracefully on her feet. Finally, Hogan stepped out, his armor gleaming in the dim light. The portal behind them

The battlefield still steamed from the Fire Warden’s fall. Thick smoke curled upward from the cracks in the ground, mixing with the strange red glow that came from the shattered crystal above.No one spoke. The only sound was the slow hiss of cooling lava, until the shadow moved.It drifted forward like black smoke, yet every step it took pressed into the ground as though it had weight. Two burning white eyes glared from the darkness that formed its head. “You should not have come here.”The voice was not loud, but it cut through the silence like a blade. It was deep, hollow, and cold, a sound that didn’t seem to come from the shadow’s mouth, but from inside their skulls.Miller instinctively stepped back. “What, what is that thing?”Doyle’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not alive. Not in the normal sense.”“It’s something worse,” Akira muttered. Her grip on her sword tightened.Riley felt his stomach twist. His system screen blinked in front of him, the text sharp and urgent.SYSTEM ALERT: U

The wind over the cliff was cold, carrying with it the faint smell of the moss-covered valley below. The glow from the moss bathed everything in a sickly green light, and in the middle of it, the fragment of the Gem of Vespa pulsed like a heartbeat.But it wasn’t alone. From the moss, the shadow rose. It no longer looked like drifting smoke. The black mass had taken shape, tall, broad, with long arms that hung almost to the ground. Its body still shifted like dark mist, but its movements were solid, heavy, real. White eyes burned in its head like pieces of ice. It stared at them. “You came,” it said.The voice was the same as before, low, hollow, and echoing inside their minds rather than their ears.Nobody moved. Doyle’s jaw tightened. “So this is what guards the fragment.”“That’s no normal guardian,” Miller muttered, gripping the hilt of his dagger. “We shouldn’t.”“Shut up,” Hogan snapped, his gaze fixed on the shadow. “We came here for the gem. We’re not leaving without it.”Th

Darkness. Not the kind that comes at night. This was heavier. Thicker. It pressed against Riley’s skin like water.He opened his eyes slowly. Or maybe he only thought he opened them, it made no difference. All around him was black. Endless, suffocating black. No sound. No ground. No sky.Just nothing. He tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy, as if the darkness itself held him down. Panic rose in his chest. “Where am I?” he whispered.His voice didn’t echo. It didn’t go anywhere. It was swallowed instantly, and then, a voice answered. “You are where you belong.”Riley froze. He knew that voice. The shadow. The air in front of him rippled, and from the darkness stepped the same figure that had attacked them before, tall, broad, with glowing white eyes. But here, in this place, it looked stronger. Its body was sharper, clearer. Not just smoke, something more solid.Riley forced himself to stand, though his legs trembled. “What did you do to me? Where’s my team?”“They are alive. For

The valley shook like a living thing. Light cracked through the mossy ground, green and white streams bursting upward in violent arcs. The mist thickened, swirling fast as if it were alive too, wrapping the whole valley in a prison of haze.Riley’s eyes locked on the chained woman at the center of it all. She hung in the glow like she was floating underwater, her body still, her eyes closed. The chains around her shimmered with a dull white light, and they pulsed in rhythm with the moss beneath Riley’s feet.It was as if the entire valley was tied to her, but he had no time to think. The Guardians were rising.Their massive moss-and-stone bodies tore free of the ground, glowing cracks spreading across their chests. First one, then three, then a dozen. In moments, Riley was surrounded. His system blinked wildly.ENTITY DETECTED: VALLEY GUARDIANS (x27).Threat Level: Overwhelming.Recommended Strategy: Retreat.Riley clenched his jaw. “Retreat to where?” he muttered bitterly.The gr