The clawed hand tightened on the broken earth, and the ground split wider. Cold, stale air rushed up from the darkness below, smelling of deep soil and old graves. The thing was pulling itself up.
Lucifer didn't step back. He watched, his expression hardening. "Daniel," he said, his voice low.
"Yeah?" Daniel replied, his usual smirk gone, replaced by a focused frown.
"Whatever that is, it's not a Hollow. The energy's all wrong."
Before Daniel could answer, a new sound cut through the frigid air—not a tear or a roar, but a chime. A clear, resonant ringing, like a silver bell.
Thirty yards to their left, the air shimmered with emerald light. A vertical slit opened, glowing with intricate, woven patterns of gold and green. An elven portal, clean and precise, hissed into existence.
From it stepped a single figure.
