The gates of Nexus loomed ahead.
Arthur stood at the ridge, Tiara and Ali flanking him. Before them stretched a city unlike anything he had seen—alive, shifting, humming with energy that wasn't quite mana and wasn't quite spiritual energy either. It was something older. Something deeper.
The walls were made of translucent stone, layered in runic patterns that breathed—each pulse slow and rhythmic, like the heartbeat of a slumbering titan. The streets twisted and wove into great arcs, not built but grown, bending according to some law foreign to the physical world. Buildings reached skyward in impossible shapes, tapering into spirals that vanished into drifting clouds of spirit matter.
"It's beautiful," Tiara whispered, clutching the pendant around her neck.
"It's dangerous," Ali said, his voice low. His eyes never stopped moving, wary.
