Chapter 81 — Sacrifice and Choice
The sky split at dawn.
Not with the gradual awakening of Korthrax's riftspawn, but with a violent, deliberate cataclysm. The largest rift tore wider than ever before, vomiting forth a true manifestation of the Devourer — no mere avatar, but a colossal nightmare that blotted out the horizon. Tentacles thicker than castle towers lashed across the ash plains, each one covered in blinking eyes and screaming mouths that spoke with the voices of millions devoured across millennia.
At the same moment, golden light pierced the northern horizon. The Celestial Host had committed everything. Legions of paladins marched in perfect, fanatical formation. Hundreds of celestial constructs advanced like divine siege engines. Floating war platforms carried arch-priests chanting purification hymns that burned the very air.
