Tave's eyes snapped open as his body slammed into the ground. Blinding light hit him like a wave, forcing him to shut his eyes tight. He stayed still for a moment, breathing, adjusting to the sudden brightness after hours trapped in the suffocating darkness of the portal.
When he finally opened his eyes again, Vanya was beside him. Breathing heavily, her eyes scanning the vast, sun-scorched desert around them.
They had made it out.
They had escaped the rift.
Even if the way they escaped wasn't normal. Tave remembered it too clearly, the endless void inside the demon portal. It had felt like hours of falling through nothing. It wasn't how Rift Challengers were meant to return.
But still… they were alive.
They had survived.
Though that brought a new question: What had happened to the demons? To the monsters that escaped the rift alongside them?
