Far below where God's live in lavishness and grandeur, beings suffered in the mortal realm.Tristan’s world smelled of damp wood, rusted iron, and cold mornings that bit into bare skin. The house he lived in was crouched at the edge of the village like it didn’t belong—citizens warped, roof sagging, windows forever darkened by soot. Inside, silence was heavy, broken only by the scrape of boots or the crack of wood against wood.At the age of 21, he was forced to mature into adulthood. From childhood to early adulthood, Fatigue and hunger was his oldest companion.His stomach grumbles. It woke him before dawn, twisting his stomach into knots as frost crept across the floorboards. He rose quietly, careful not to wake Garron too early. Mornings were worse when his foster father’s temper hadn’t yet burned itself out on work or pitcher of ale.The axe waited where Tristan had left it, its handle worn smooth by hands far stronger than his.“Don’t just stare at it, use your shit of strength!

Tristan opens his eyes once again after the veil disappears. His eyes grow in horror as he finds himself standing on the warm, blood‑slick sand, his mind a fog of disorientation. The last thing he remembered was he was about to be beat up by the thugs who tried to extort him with money, then a flash of blinding white light as the world seemed to tilt.The sun had not yet risen over the desert of Helgia, but the sky was already a riot of crimson and violet as magical fire sparked against steel. The clash of swords rang like a storm, while bolts of raw arcane energy crackled over the heads of the combatants.On one side, the Warriors of Light... clad in polished armor bearing the sigil he didn't recognize, were a force of disciplined fury. Across the dunes, the Shadow Legion surged, its forms shifting between darkness and substance, eyes burning with a violet hunger.Still disoriented... A fireball, incandescent and roaring, arced toward him from the east. Its heat licked the air, and a

“We must seal this fissure,” Gorath declared, his voice like grinding stone. “the shadows will return with a vengeance. If we can at least delay the time they came back again to do trouble, we can have the delay as much as possible.«Aelar stepped forward, his hand igniting a small, controlled blaze. “Then let us bind our elements together. We will create a temporary seal that darkness will darkness find it difficult to breach.”Tristan felt a tremor under his feet, as though the earth itself recognized his presence. He looked up at the sky, now a clear canvas of early morning blue, the sun breaking over the horizon, its rays spilling gold across the battlefield.“Will you… help us?” Seraphine asked, her eyes pleading yet hopeful.He hesitated, the weight of countless lives pressing upon him. The fear that had rooted him moments before melted away, replaced by a strange calm. He lifted his palms once more, not to unleash destruction, but to channel.“I don't know but...I will,” he sai

Gorath’s deep voice boomed, “We have felt the tremor of your magic. It is unlike any we have known. Yet, you appear without lineage, without oath. How did you cross from the mortal realm without the Old Dark Oak portal, which is the only known passage?”Tristan asked, ”Mortal realm? Is it what you called the human world where I came from?”Nymira spoke and said, ”Yes. The mortal world is where a powerless creature resides. You're here now at Lumen, the realm of light. While those dark creatures you see are from Lleh, the realm of shadows and darkness. Now answer us!”Tristan’s mind flashed back to the night sky over Thorndike, the flash of white and gold as the portal tore apart. “I do not know,” he admitted, a bitter edge to his words. “A blinding light suddenly emerged. I was pulled through…by the same forces that tore it. I have no memory of how I arrived, only that I must act.”A sudden gasp rippled through the hall. From the crowd stepped a woman cloaked in amber light... Seraphi

“What—”“By the Circle—”“Impossible,” Professor Vance breathed.“No, no, that reading is wrong,” another faculty member hissed urgently. “Recalibrate it...now!”“You can’t recalibrate mid-measurement!” someone snapped back. “It’s already past the limit!”The crystal didn't just glow; it fractured. A web of brilliant, gold-and-silver lightning crackled across its surface. The humming escalated into a deafening shriek that vibrated through the stone seats of the coliseum. The numbers within the sphere didn't just spin; they became a blur of light, climbing at an impossible, exponential rate, shattering every record held within the university's history.“That’s… that’s not linear growth,” a trembling Professor Mistry muttered.“It’s accelerating,” another whispered. “It’s still accelerating!”“Make it stop!” someone shouted. “That gauge can’t handle this!”“Shut it down!” a student screamed from the stands. “You’ll kill him! The shockwave will kill him.”“Impossible,” came a hoarse repl