Location:Kael'thoren — War Council Chambers
Date/Time:Early Ashwhisper, 9940 AZI
Realm:Demon Realm (Upper Realm)
The crystal pulsed at the third hour before dawn.
Ren was at the map table — the same position he occupied most nights when the Common Path's background noise dimmed enough to think. A hundred and fifty red marks where the gate locators had found buried invasion infrastructure. The count climbed with every deployment wave. Kaelen's teams were producing locator units faster now — forty-seven active across the realm, scanning outward in concentric arcs that ate more territory each week. The eastern mountains alone had yielded forty-three — all positioned behind defensive lines, making the passes irrelevant. Not breaching the wall. Bypassing it entirely.
