Chapter 251

John took a deep breath, his eyes flicking to the stone in his hand. The symbols etched into its surface still pulsed faintly, almost as if reacting to the growing tension in the air. "We need to find out what these things are, and how to stop them. We've got to figure out who or what opened the rift in the first place. We can't just keep closing rifts without understanding what's behind them."

Naomi crossed her arms, looking at John with skepticism. "You're saying this is bigger than just a bunch of dark portals? That there's something controlling them?"

"I don't know," John said honestly. "But I think whatever is behind this is far more dangerous than we realize."

"Then we find it," Mark said, his voice resolute. "We find whoever is behind it, and we stop it before it spreads any further."

Veronica gave him a wary look. "And how do you propose we do that? We're already at a disadvantage. We don't even know what we're dealing with."