• •
  Got it! I won’t control your character. I’ll only play the world and everyone else.

⸻

The village of Thorn’s Hollow had become a battlefield.

Smoke billowed into the night sky as cottages collapsed under the weight of monstrous claws. The clang of swords echoed through the streets while terrified villagers fled toward the crumbling gates.

“Hold the line!” Captain Rowan shouted, driving his blade into the chest of a wolf-like beast. It barely flinched before hurling him through the wall of a nearby stable.

Archers fired volley after volley from the rooftops, but the creatures kept coming. Some were massive, covered in jagged stone-like armor. Others moved unnaturally fast, darting through the smoke before dragging soldiers into the darkness.

A young boy stumbled into the middle of the square, frozen in fear as a towering beast lowered its head and let out a deafening roar.

“No!” a knight yelled, sprinting toward him.

Too late.

The monster lunged—

A streak of blue light crashed into it from above, sending the creature skidding across the cobblestones. The impact cracked the street itself.

The other beasts suddenly stopped fighting.

One by one, they lifted their heads toward the ancient mountains beyond the kingdom.

A low horn echoed through the night.

Then another.

The beasts began pulling back—not retreating in fear, but making way.

Heavy footsteps shook the earth.

Out of the smoke emerged armored figures cloaked in black iron, each bearing the crest of a shattered crown. Behind them walked a single towering figure, face hidden beneath a horned helm, a sword of black crystal resting on one shoulder.

“The Princess of this kingdom…” the stranger’s voice rumbled across the silent battlefield. “Bring them to me.”

Every soldier tightened their grip on their weapons.

The battle had only just begun.*