For a single, agonizing heartbeat, the only sound was the parasitic heart thrumming in the chamber and Elara's shattered whisper.
"Kael…?"
His name was a question, a plea, a prayer against the cold, final command. The figure that had been Kael, her Kael, stood rigid, his form a perfect sculpture of military precision. The violet light in his optic sensors was a brand, a searing mark of ownership that erased the man she knew.
"Varin, now!" Elara cried, her voice cracking.
The Steward was already moving. Denied his mana-blade by the parasite's draining field, he summoned raw geomancy. The stone floor at Kael's feet erupted in a spiral of golden, rune-etched rock, meant to ensnare and crush.
Kael didn't dodge. His left arm snapped down, fingers splayed. A hexagonal grid of cyan light, shimmering with lines of spellcode, materialized before him.
> ANALYZE_GEOMANTIC_PATTERN.
> COUNTER-SPELLCODE: [EARTH_SHATTER.vx]. EXECUTE.
