An original AI generated sci-fi illustration on an immutable blockchain – The Sentinel of the Rift – On the edge of the abyss, the figure stood cloaked in streaming light, its veil trailing across the jagged cliffs like threads of eternity. Before it loomed a planet split in two—half aflame in crimson fire, half frozen in spectral blue, divided by a piercing column of energy that lanced into the heavens. The air vibrated with ancient power, as if creation itself were being rewritten. This was the Sentinel of the Rift, guardian of the line between worlds. For eons it had waited in silence, neither alive nor dead, tasked with watching the convergence of fire and frost. Its presence was both a warning and a promise: that balance must never be broken, lest the fracture between light and shadow consume everything in its path. Few mortals had ever seen it and survived to tell of its gaze. Below, seas of mist swirled around the stone spires, and somewhere within them, armies gathered. They marched unknowingly toward the end of their time, their fate entwined with the beam that split the cosmos. The Sentinel raised its arm toward the divided planet, and the veil rippled as though in answer to an unseen call. Soon, the choice would come—preserve the fragile equilibrium or let the scales fall, unleashing the storm that had been waiting since the first dawn.