The moment the chains across the island loosened, something answered.
It wasn't immediate violence, not an explosion of movement or sound, but a shift in pressure, like the air itself had grown heavier, more aware. Stone groaned softly beneath unseen weight, metal scraping against broken pavement as shapes began to emerge from the streets ahead. Noel felt them before he fully saw them, a dense presence pressing against his senses, refined and deliberate in a way the lesser constructs had never been.
Five figures stepped into view.
