The spatial transition felt like drowning in deep, freezing oil.
When Kai's dark leather boots finally touched solid ground, the heavy silver crown upon his head hummed with a sharp, resonant vibration as it adjusted to foreign gravity.
He stood at the vanguard of his army on a vast, endless plain of polished black obsidian that mirrored the purple, starlit nebula stretching across the sky above them.
There was no sun, nor was there any wind, but the ambient atmosphere pressed against his protective blue domain like the crushing weight of a deep ocean trench.
"Steady the mounts!" Zara roared, her seasoned voice carrying effortlessly across the silent obsidian flats as her cavalry warhorses reared and snorted in sudden disorientation.
"Lock your shields and keep your eyes forward!" Yena commanded her rebel infantry, slamming the butt of her void-bone spear onto the glass floor to anchor her lines.
