The world did not settle after Lucien vanished.
Marie's scream tore through the darkness like a fracture in reality itself.
The ground beneath her feet answered with a deep, thunderous groan.
The Varkhaal Eternal remained.
"That thing," he hissed, "cannot be allowed to mature."
Marie turned slowly.
Her fury turned wild. The air around her shimmered as if the world itself had agreed to move when she did.
The Varkhaal Eternal narrowed his eyes.
He could see it now.
Her strength had exploded far beyond her original realm. In raw output alone, she was brushing the threshold of the Celestial Realm.
But that wasn't what unsettled him.
It was this—
His Law of Darkness can not bind her.
It slid. Every shadow spear he launched twisted away at the last instant. Domains meant to suppress instead dispersed, dissolving as they neared her presence.
He stepped closer.
And felt it.
His Law… was being rejected.
"…This is wrong," he growled.
Marie moved.
