"Stand back, everyone," Leia commanded, her voice strained but firm. She planted the butt of her staff into the earth and jumped in front of Mael, a wall of fierce determination. "I won't let this thing harm my family!"

Her magic, born of will and life, bloomed into a brilliant display. A myriad ...

His mind reeled as he returned to the Waking World. The transition was always jarring, like surfacing from a deep ocean dive, but this time it was different. His body felt heavy, slightly lethargic, as if every muscle and sinew was catching up, adjusting to the sheer weight of what he had learned ...

"What you must do, Sovryn,"

Celestia's voice resonated, a symphony of distant nebulae and forgotten melodies, "is embrace that which flows within you. Phantasus is not merely a city of dreams; it is the source of Astral presence, the crucible where thought and emotion take ephemeral shape before ...

"Just what does that even mean?" Mael asked, his voice barely a whisper against the silent hum of light. He had hoped that he might finally get some true answers. It wasn't that the Mayor hadn't tried to explain, but he wasn't sure why it was him. There were billions of people on the planet ...

The vibrant tapestry of the Astral Realm unfolded beneath them as they flew onward towards the colossal stone structure looming in the distance. Swirls of amethyst and gold danced in the ethereal currents, challenging the very concept of fixed reality. Mael's eyes glistened with an almost unbearable ...

As the light that engulfed them departed, Mael found himself in a place that defied anything corporeal he had ever experienced. To try to put into words the beauty of the realm around him would do nothing but insult its seemingly cosmically spectral allure. His eyes inflated in utter disbelief with ...

--Several Hours later--

The sun had begun to cast a veil of dense light upon the landscape signaling the approach of nightfall. After they left the village gates the Mayor told Mael to follow him. However, what he needed to show him could only be done after the sun had set. The sun…weren’t there ...

"What's that?!"

Wraith's temper erupted back up instantly, he was trying to be patient with these people but they were stubborn as hell and it was beginning to piss him off.

"Listen here you rusting bastard, we lost half our platoon to that thing. If you know a way to beat those damn things you ...

" By the stars, you young men seemed to have been through quite the tussell."

The mayor's voice, despite being calm, cut through the bubbling tension. The mob parted, allowing the grey-haired elder through, who was stroking his beard as he walked with a cane in hand.

"You ask how we have ...

The town was in an uproar. Some people had run and hidden in their homes, others were on the sidelines shielding their children, and wives were holding their husbands back from getting into the fray. The mob was growing, and as Mark got closer, he could hear the voices of several men and one female ...