The air split first.
Not a magic circle. Not a portal like the ones Raven summoned. Something rougher. A tear, jagged at the edges, black at the center, with veins of sickly green light crawling along its border like rot spreading through wood. It hung above the border line, over the dark soil of the demon realm, humming with a frequency that made teeth ache.
The soldiers behind Raven went quiet. Weapons raised again. The cheering died in throats. A hundred thousand men who had just watched their leader tear a worm's jaw apart and shatter a beast's spine with his bare hand now watched the rift with the particular stillness of men who did not know if the next thing to come through would need killing.
Something stepped out.
