The pressure placed on them did not vanish all at once. It receded slowly, like a tide pulling back from a shoreline, leaving behind the heavy awareness that it could return at any moment if the will standing before them so desired.
Several students subtly exhaled, muscles loosening only a fraction. Even Zeus, who usually thrived under pressure, rolled his shoulders once as if acknowledging an invisible weight.
Kael Nocturna watched them with open amusement.
"Relax," the Demon King said, spreading his hands slightly. "If I intended to crush you, you would not be standing."
That did not help nearly as much as he probably thought it would.
Ysvara stepped forward, her presence seamlessly complementing Kael's rather than competing with it. Where Kael was raw dominion—heat, pressure, inevitability—Ysvara was composed authority, the calm certainty of a ruler who had never once needed to raise her voice to be obeyed.
