The gate stood in the center of the valley like a wound in reality, a vertical tear in space that shimmered with blue and white energy, frost had spread from its base in a perfect circle, covering everything within a hundred feet in crystalline ice that looked like frozen lightning captured in the ground.
Luthra, Khorvash, and Misha stood at the perimeter, studying the entrance, the temperature difference was noticeable even from this distance, creating a visible boundary where warm air met the supernatural cold.
"It's beautiful," Misha said, her breath already fogging despite the distance, "in a terrifying, unnatural sort of way."
"It's a hole in the world that spits out monsters," Khorvash countered, smoke curling from her nostrils as her dragon nature reacted to the cold, "nothing beautiful about it."
