The moment Lucien stepped beyond the Obsidian Tower's threshold, the world unfolded before him.
He stood at the center of a vast wound in the land.
A crater stretched outward in a perfect, brutal ring. Its edges were scorched and vitrified by heat that had briefly rivaled the sky. Jagged rock jutted upward like broken teeth.
Far below, fractured stone still radiated residual warmth, the aftermath of a descent that had rewritten the terrain in a single moment.
Mountains rose in the distance.
Lucien took in the scene in a single breath.
Then he moved.
The Obsidian Tower vanished, drawn inward and sealed within his Divine Energy Core as if it had never existed. The air where it had stood collapsed inward with a faint distortion, and Lucien was already gone.
He felt it then.
Presences.
They were not all close, but they were close enough. Some were curious. Others were wary. A few carried the weight of strength that did not belong to beasts.
This world was inhabited.
