Chapter 19: The Sovereign Gate
The mountain screamed.
It wasn’t a sound the human ear could catch. But every bird within fifty miles vanished. The wind changed direction. The Rift surged.
And the Sovereign Gate bloomed.
From the split in the mountain’s side, light poured like blood through a cracked bone. The stone peeled away, not naturally, but like petals. Glowing glyphs spiraled from the rocks. The very fabric of space twisted around it — not inward, but sideways, folding like wet cloth.
The Guild’s scouting team didn’t survive.
Only their final comms echoed back into the central relay station:
> "It’s not a tunnel. It’s a mouth. It’s speaking—"
Then static.
Ning Que stood in the Guild’s war room, watching footage from the drone. Lyra sat behind him, bandaged but alert. Aeris was stone-faced. Linx hovered near the corner, arms crossed, ever restless.
Grandmaster Li paced slowly, his robe whispering along the polished floor.
The Sovereign Gate filled the holo-screen. Alive. Breathing. Trembling with Riftlight.