Chapter 22
The world seemed to shrink as Augustus stepped fully through the tear in the sky. The mountains beneath the hidden city trembled, as if the earth itself recognized him and bowed without choice. Behind him, the tear began to close, the sky sealing slowly until the battlefield felt trapped beneath it, cut off from everything beyond. The space around them grew tighter, heavier, like the world itself was being forced to make room for something it was never meant to hold.
