The elven delegation brought winter with them.
Frost crackled across the Sanctum's stone floors as their silver-clad envoy stepped forward, his face hidden behind a mask of woven moonlight. Otoku peered from behind Veyra's robes, Gravy's tiny shadow-body pressed against his ankles like living armor.
*"You harbor abomination,"* the elf hissed. His breath smelled of crushed juniper and something older—something that made Otoku's void-eye pulse.
Veyra didn't flinch. *"I harbor a child."*
*"That is no child."* The elf's fingers twitched toward his blade. *"The Star-Eater's birth shattered the—"*
Gravy moved first.
One moment he was a shadow at Otoku's feet—the next, he'd *teleported* onto the elf's shoulder and taken a bite out of his ear.
**Magic System Showcase**:
- **Gravy's Ability**: Short-range teleportation (cost: drains Otoku's stamina)
- **Visual**: The pup reappeared with a *pop* of displaced air, elf blood dripping from his maw.
Chaos erupted.
Otoku *willed* the nearest torch to explode—
—and the flames turned **inside out**, sucking heat from the room instead of emitting it. The elves' frost magic intensified, freezing two of their own warriors solid.
*"Stop!"* Veyra barked, but it was too late.
The lead elf drew his sword—a sliver of captured starlight—and lunged. Otoku squeezed his eyes shut...
...and opened them to find Gravy **floating mid-air**, the elf's blade stuck fast in the pup's shadow-fur as if trapped in tar.
*"Bad man,"* Otoku whispered. He reached out.
The elf **unmade** from the feet up, his body dissolving into black sand that Gravy eagerly lapped up.
**Cost**:
- Otoku's **right pinky finger turned to stone**.
- Gravy **vomited the sand back up**—now wriggling with tiny void-worms.
Veyra stared at the remaining elves, then at Otoku's petrified digit.
*"Well,"* she deadpanned, *"at least they can't report this."*
She slaughtered the rest with her bare hands.
That night, Otoku learned two things:
1. Elves taste like **salt and lightning**.
2. Gravy would **always** bite first and ask questions never.
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