The world was an inferno.
Erin Volter stood in the center of an unfamiliar, burning wasteland, her breath catching in her throat as waves of suffocating heat licked at her skin. High above, the sky was not the bruised violet of Rilth nor the overcast grey of Varisus, but a swirling, apocalyptic canopy of ash and bleeding crimson.
A hundred yards ahead of her, a massive glass-and-steel skyscraper groaned under severe strain. The concrete columns buckled, and with a deafening, earth-shattering roar, the entire multi-story monolith collapsed inward. A catastrophic wave of pulverized rubble, shattered glass, jagged rebar, and burning debris rushed directly toward her like a tidal wave.
Erin gasped, reflexively throwing her arms in front of her face and squeezing her eyes shut, bracing for the terminal impact.
SWOOSH.
The impact never came.
