The current of the River of Time carried Ash through an endless blur of worlds, timelines, and moments that he could neither understand nor distinguish from one another, until suddenly, without warning, that overwhelming sensation disappeared and the space around him became strangely still.
At the same time, somewhere in an ordinary alley, between two rows of old but well-maintained buildings, the air suddenly warped as though reality itself had been bent from the inside, and a thin, unstable portal appeared so quietly that it almost seemed to blend into the surroundings before anyone could notice that it had even formed.
The portal trembled for a brief moment, its surface flickering between transparency and darkness as though it was struggling to remain connected to whatever place existed on the other side, and then, without giving the world any warning, it violently spat something out.
