Elias spun around. Standing there was the rat prince from the screen, Redgi. But he wasn't a flat, two-dimensional drawing anymore. He was flesh, bone, and wet fur, standing two feet tall, his armor clinking as he breathed.
Elias frowned, pulling his hoodie tighter. He watched the progress bar hit 100%. Usually, a completed download was followed by the routine extraction of an ISO file. But this time, no extraction was needed. A single execution file appeared directly on his desktop, titled simply: The King's Return . Tails.of.Iron-CODEX.torrent
As the data packets assembled themselves on his hard drive, the air in the room grew inexplicably thick. The temperature dropped, smelling suddenly of damp earth and rusted metal. Elias spun around
The air was freezing, thick with the scent of wet fur and iron. He looked down. His hands were covered in thick, dark fur, tipped with sharp claws. He was wearing a heavy, rusted chainmail shirt that weighed down on his chest. Strapped to his back was a broadsword, its blade notched and scarred from countless battles. He was flesh, bone, and wet fur, standing
Redgi didn't look surprised. He stepped forward, placing a small, heavy paw on Elias's armored shoulder.
"I didn't mean to— I was just downloading a game!" Elias tried to shout, but it came out as a series of frantic squeaks and chitters. He reached for his throat in horror.
Redgi drew a short, wicked-looking spear from his back and pointed it toward the dark forest beyond the gates, where thousands of glowing red eyes were beginning to emerge.