Chapter 52: Danger

Chapter 66: Danger Fifteen minutes remained on Shadow Exchange’s cooldown.

He also wanted to take the opportunity to retrieve the spatial device that held Reiner’s body.

So in the end, he stayed.

The Concept Core in the Duke’s hands began to glow.

Then it began to intensify.

The surface of the platform, which had previously appeared flat and smooth, now revealed a series of grooves forming a strange diagram, concentric circles and precise geometric figures carved into the stone.

The crimson violet liquid began flowing from ten separate pores distributed across the platform’s surface. It moved slowly through the grooves, following every curve, every angle, every fork in the diagram. It filled everything, down to the last millimeter.

Once. Twice. As if it had drawn a breath.

The Concept Core suspended in the air seemed to react. Its glow intensified and became unstable, no longer the steady light of an inert crystal, but something alive responding to a call. From within it, waves of Void Energy began to spread, slow and steady like rising tides.

The Duke, however, did not move an inch.

The Concept Core reached an invisible but unmistakable threshold, and then it released.

The cocoon reacted.

Then the beam reversed direction.

The Duke reached out and took the Concept Core.

Evan felt it through his bond with Shadow like something physical. Like standing beneath a sky that was pressing down.

It wasn’t refined. It wasn’t the laugh of a nobleman. It was raw, unrestrained, the laugh of a man who had waited far too long for this moment and no longer cared to hide it.

His subordinates did not join him. They stood still, pressed as far back as the space allowed, and in their expressions Evan read something that was not excitement.

While this unfolded below, above the city, the sky began to change.

The sky above BranLeaf began to roar.

A feeling spread through the entire city.

Cedric stopped attacking.

The two still faced each other from a distance, but neither was watching the other anymore. Both were staring at the sky.

The beasts began to retreat.

Everyone could sense that something terrible was about to happen.