Chapter 193: THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
The Soul Forge had done its job.
The Goblin Legion lived again—if you could call it that.
But no one had prepared for what came after.
They marched through the barracks like ghosts returned from a forgotten war. Armor reassembled from memory, expressions half-formed, battle reflexes sharp but not always connected to present reality. For all their tactical discipline and unwavering loyalty, the resurrected goblins moved like they were stuck between centuries—because they were.
The Goblin Integration Crisis was no longer hypothetical.
Grax Ironjaw stood before a transparent wall, gazing into a fracture of space where three timelines folded into one. "This world makes no sense," he muttered. "We fought for clarity. Simplicity. You told us what was real and what wasn’t. Now I can’t even tell what day it is."
Shia Brightblade moved beside him, arms crossed, emerald hair pulsing with slow, thoughtful motion. "You’re not wrong. This world doesn’t have a day-night cycle. Not since the Chronoquake ruptured the celestial frame."
Grax looked sideways at her. "And we’re supposed to fight for this?"
"You’re not fighting for this," she said quietly. "You’re fighting to survive within it."
He didn’t argue. But he didn’t nod either.
Shia had become more than a commander to her people. She was The Bridge Between Eras, the only being who had one foot in the ancient past and the other in this fractured present. She translated temporal anomalies into old goblin metaphors. She reframed post-Transformation reality through legends they still remembered.