Her words carried a heavy undertone, sharpened by Asurik's warnings, the lessons etched in blood from the chaos she'd witnessed in the last bloodbath. Distrust lived there now — a blade she carried whether she wanted to or not.
Elias nodded once, his hands tightening around the edge of his sleeves, knuckles whitening. The pod's hum pressed against his ears, steady and low, matching the beat of his own pulse.
"Yeah," he said, his voice firm, "but shard users stop shard users."
The thought pulled hard against him, dragging forward the memory of Yui's unchecked dominance, the devastation the Epics had left behind in their wake — laughing while entire bases crumbled just for sport.
"They took down a base for fun," Elias said, the words rough. "If we can do something — anything — we should try."
His shard throbbed once under his ribs, a pulse that wasn't fear or doubt but something harder, something that Dot's steady blue glow at his side echoed in quiet support.
