Emergency Rift?!
Hell fucking damn!
This was absolutely the worst-case scenario for any Rift Expedition. And Tave had walked right into it. Worse still, this was a Rift one full tier above his own Gaia Stage.
But there was no time to panic. No time to think about how screwed he might be. He snapped into survival mode.
The wind was brutal. Howling, heavy, relentless. He dropped into a crouch, bracing himself as he scanned his surroundings.
Where the hell was he?
Trees. Dozens of them. Dense. Towering. Packed in all directions. But something felt... off. They didn't look quite like normal trees. More like massive, vertical shafts of wood rising straight up into the air. Their surfaces were too smooth, their shapes too uniform, like giant pillars masquerading as trunks.
This wasn't normal terrain. This wasn't land.
A gnawing instinct churned in his gut, and Tave didn't ignore it. He immediately called out to Fang.
