"Well, about time," Jack muttered with a mischievous grin creeping across his face. His fingers brushed his ear, and with a flick, a small metallic stick shot from his ear. It elongated mid-air, transforming into a gleaming staff, which he caught effortlessly. He spun it in his hand, feeling its weight, his grin widening.
Janice's expression tightened, her eyes narrowing in focus. A cold mist began to swirl around her as an intense wave of freezing energy rolled off her body, the ground beneath her feet cracking under the sudden drop in temperature. Her breath came out in a thin, icy vapor, and frost spread across the nearby terrain. The air felt sharp, biting.
She didn't say a word, her eyes fixed on the rift, ready for whatever monstrosity might emerge.
Jack twirled his staff lazily, glancing at his sister. "Look at you, always so dramatic with the ice thing," he teased, though there was a flicker of anticipation in his eyes. He was excited, itching for the fight.
Janice didn't respond, her face calm, but her cold energy told another story—she was ready for war.
As the rift tore open, the sky above the Divine Plane darkened, swirling with malevolent energy. From the void beyond, grotesque, winged monsters began to emerge, their bodies a horrific fusion of dragon, demon, and beast. Each creature was massive, at least twenty feet tall, with leathery wings that stretched wide across the sky.
Their scales were a sickly black, pulsating with red veins that seemed to carry the life-blood of the abyss from which they came. Claws as long as swords gleamed in the dim light, sharp enough to tear through steel, and their fangs dripped with a foul-smelling venom that hissed when it hit the ground.
Their eyes glowed with an eerie crimson light, holding not just rage but a twisted intelligence. These were no mindless beasts. Their gaze flickered with cruel awareness, a predatory cunning that made them more dangerous than their hulking forms suggested.
They could not speak, but the low growls and snarls that rumbled from their throats carried meaning—a desire for destruction, for the obliteration of everything in their path.
Jack laughed as he dodged a strike from one of the monsters, his staff moving fluidly as he fought off three at once. "I thought they'd be tougher!" he shouted, his voice filled with adrenaline. He twisted, his staff connecting with another beast's jaw, sending it reeling backward with a roar of pain.
Janice remained focused, her every movement precise. She raised her hand, and a wall of ice erupted from the ground, separating the monsters, cutting their forces in half. As one of the creatures lunged at her, she met its charge head-on, her icy aura freezing its limbs before it could even reach her.
With a swift motion, she summoned a spear of ice, driving it through the monster's chest with a chilling thud.
Despite the onslaught, the monsters showed no fear. Their red eyes continued to gleam with intelligence, assessing and adapting to the siblings' movements. They began to move more strategically, surrounding the twins, coordinating their attacks as if driven by some unseen commander from beyond the rift.
Jack's playful grin began to fade as he noticed the shift. "These things are smarter than they look," he muttered, spinning his staff again as more monsters closed in. "Looks like they're done playing dumb."
Janice's expression remained cold, her mind already working through their next moves. "They're trying to box us in," she said, her voice calm but urgent. "We need to break their formation."
With a nod, Jack shot into the sky, his staff glowing with a faint golden light as he spun it faster and faster. "Let's see how they handle this!" he yelled, and with a sharp motion, he slammed the staff into the ground, sending out a shockwave that cracked the earth, sending several of the creatures tumbling backward.
Janice took advantage of the opening. Her hands glowed with icy power as she summoned a massive, towering wave of frost. The wave surged forward, engulfing the monsters in its freezing grip, locking them in place, their roars of defiance muffled by the thick layers of ice.
But even as they were frozen, their eyes still burned with that unnerving intelligence, and Janice knew this was only the beginning.