"Their bodies are too unstable…" Elder Mia whispered, her voice trembling like a fraying string. "If we interfere directly, the Voidflare may destabilize entirely."
Her old hands clutched the edge of her robes as if trying to hold onto something, hope, perhaps.
Beside her, Elder Loe clenched his fists, his knuckles pale. His eyes followed Ko's every move on the battlefield, trembling not from age, but from helplessness.
"We're too old for this battlefield now…" he muttered bitterly. "They carry what we couldn't."
Elder Lao, silent until now, knelt slowly in the dust. His gaze was hollow, fixed on the storm beyond. The lines on his face deepened like cracks in a statue worn by centuries of regret.
"We started this… now we can only witness it end."
BOOM.
Lightning lit the battlefield again briefly illuminating the cracks in the sky, the blood on the grass, the Void in Lin's eyes.
Khael didn't hesitate.
