I lifted my gaze from the runes and met his eyes directly. "You didn't create a battlefield," I said evenly. "You created a filter. A place where existence itself is evaluated and rejected if it doesn't meet your conditions."
"Yes," he replied without offense, his tone almost proud. "Crude annihilation is inefficient. Filtration, on the other hand, refines outcomes. And you…" His gaze lingered on me. "You slipped through."
The second Eternal stepped forward, deathmist rolling more heavily around him now, his voice carrying a sharper edge.
"A human aligning with deathmist without an external anchor," he said slowly. "Without a conversion core. Without a borrowed authority. Do you understand how statistically impossible that should be?"
The Feran Transcendent's ears flattened slightly as he stared at me. "You're saying he isn't using an artifact? No relic? No implant?"
"No," the Eternal answered flatly. "He is the anomaly."
His attention returned to me fully.
