The ground had shattered beneath the three creatures as they lunged, their movement perfectly synchronized, their intent clear. Adam met them head-on, death affinity rising, but far beyond the battlefield, something else had already begun to shift.
Far north of the sectors, deep within the monitored wild zones, the Alliance maintained constant surveillance over unstable rifts. The further north one went, the stricter the control became, even in places where personnel never physically entered.
Sensors replaced human presence.
Every fluctuation, anomaly and surge of energy was recorded and analyzed in real time. Most rifts followed predictable patterns, even the dangerous ones, but a few stood out, they were either irregular, unstable, or simply… wrong.
Dead Man's Valley was one of them.
