[VOLUME 14: THE SHATTERED HEAVENS][ARC 2: THE QUEEN'S RETALIATION]
Stepping through the portal as a mortal had always felt like being dragged through a rushing river—disorienting, cold, and breathless.
Stepping through as a goddess felt like parting a silk curtain.
Elara emerged from the tear in space, her bare feet touching the scorched earth of Aethelgard. The instant she crossed the threshold, the suffocating scent of ozone, burning flesh, and melting stone hit her.
Her home was dying.
The sky above the mortal capital was no longer the familiar, comforting blue she had grown up under. It was fractured like a broken mirror, bleeding a sterile, blinding luminescence. It was the Pantheon's "holy fire"—a weapon of absolute purification that didn't just burn; it unmade whatever it touched.
Screams echoed through the ash-choked air. Mortals—soldiers and civilians alike—were running in terror as golden-winged deities descended from the rifts, casting down spears of white-hot light.
