The Grand Hall of Atheros was no longer a place of worship; it was a slaughterhouse of silence.
The High Priest's breath hitched as he stared at the glowing crimson runes etched into Solan's skin. "Seize him! He is the Vessel of the Serpent! If he leaves this hall, the Covenants are forfeit!"
Six elite sentinels, their armor shimmering with the golden light of the Leo Constellation, stepped forward in unison. They raised their halberds, the tips igniting with solar fire.
"Don't let him breathe!" the lead sentinel roared.
Solan's heart hammered a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He didn't know how to fight—at least, the human part of him didn't. But the Void Orb pulsing in his hand felt like an ancient library of violence unfolding in his mind.
As the first halberd swung toward his neck, Solan didn't parry. He tilted his head an inch to the left. The blade missed, whistling past his ear.
[ASTRAL VOID: PASSIVE PERCEPTION ACTIVATED]
The world slowed. The golden fire of the halberds turned into sluggish, crawling embers. Solan tightened his grip on the jagged marble hilt. The crimson plasma blade hissed, elongating until it was five feet of vibrating, blood-red neon.
"My turn," Solan whispered.
He vanished.
To the onlookers, it looked like a glitch in reality—a streak of crimson lightning. Solan reappeared in the center of the sentinel formation.
"Astral Void Style, Second Form: Gravitational Collapse."
Solan slammed his palm onto the marble floor. A shockwave of obsidian-black energy erupted outward, instantly reversing the gravity in a twenty-foot radius. The heavy-armored sentinels were tossed into the air like tin toys.
While they were weightless, Solan spun, his plasma blade leaving arcs of red stardust in the air.
Clang. Shatter. Rip.
In three seconds, six sets of enchanted armor were reduced to scrap metal. Solan didn't kill them—he didn't have the heart for it yet—but he left them broken and powerless.
"The gate!" Solan gritted his teeth, his vision blurring. The runes on his arm were burning hot, literally searing his flesh as the cost of the forbidden power.
He sprinted toward the massive oak doors of the Citadel. Two more guards attempted to cross their spears, but Solan simply ran through them, his crimson aura acting like a kinetic battering ram. He burst through the doors, the cool night air of the world outside hitting his face.
Behind him, bells began to toll. The "Hunt of the Stars" had begun.
He didn't look back. He leaped from the Citadel's high balcony, the wind screaming in his ears, hurtling toward the dark, bioluminescent canopy of the Silver Woods below.