Ethan stretched his neck side to side, joints popping in satisfying cracks. The rush of new power
from his Abyssal Necromancy still hummed like static under his skin. He glanced around his
knight's chamber, then lifted his hand and flicked his fingers sharply.
"System," he said, voice low, "open the 3D Battle Simulation. Full immersion."
A cool pulse of magic rippled through the air.
[Initializing 3D Battle Simulation…]
[Please wait…]
The world around him blurred. The stone walls, the bed, even the air itself melted into swirling
white. His body felt lighter than air as he dropped through an endless tunnel of streaming code.
Then everything snapped into focus.
He stood in a vast, dark space lit by swirling blue data streams. The ground beneath his feet
glowed like glass, shifting with tiny flickers of light. A breeze that wasn't real whispered across his
face. Above him hung a sky of shifting geometric grids.
[Welcome, Ethan Graves, to the 3D Battle Simulation.]