Night fell over the Eastern Marches like a slow eclipse, seeping into every hollow and ravine. The garrisons along Gaia's frontier had grown used to uneasy peace in the decade since the Abyss Emperors retreated, but tonight the quiet felt unnatural—so complete it muffled even the wind.
Cyg stood atop the watchtower, his breath rising in faint wisps. The Azure Sigil rested across his shoulders, frost coiling down the blade in patient spirals. He had felt the change hours before the sentries reported it: a hollowness gathering in the dark, as if the land itself were drawing an enormous, poisonous breath.
"Sir Cyg!" The watch captain clambered up the steps, her lantern bobbing. "Patrols report distortion in the Hollow Expanse. Shards of void matter breaching the wards."
Cyg did not turn. His eyes tracked the thin black fissures now webbing across the horizon, each leaking a faint violet luminescence. "How many?"
"Seven—no, eight separate ruptures." The captain swallowed. "More forming by the hour."
Behind him, footsteps approached: Harriet and Mia, armor gleaming in the wan light. Harriet looked ready to launch herself into the darkness on sheer fury alone. "We should strike now—before they can stabilize the breaches!"
Mia laid a calming hand on Harriet's shoulder. "And if that is what they want? A lure to pull us away from the main defenses?"
Cyg's gaze did not waver from the horizon. "It no longer matters whether this is a diversion. The Abyss does not permit stalemates. They test the boundary to learn how far they can push before Gaia yields."
"You're suggesting we cede the outposts?" Harriet demanded. "Abandon people to die while we wait for proof?"
"I am suggesting," Cyg said evenly, "that if we overextend now, we risk a collapse that cannot be undone."
Mia's eyes searched his, but he held her gaze without flinching. Even here—where the world itself seemed to bleed darkness—his composure was crystalline, impenetrable.
Below, a thunderous crack split the night as one of the breaches tore fully open. From its heart spilled figures clad in liquid shadow—Abyss Revenants, their forms flickering between monstrous and human.
Mia lifted her staff, the Creation Core pulsing to life in her palms. "Debate is over," she said softly. "They're here."
Cyg nodded once, drawing the Azure Sigil in a single fluid motion. Frost rushed over the stones beneath his boots. "Then we hold this line," he said. "Whatever the cost."
And in that moment, the breach howled its triumph into the world—a dirge that heralded the end of peace.
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