(Leif's Awakening—Alvar's POV— Continuation—Thoren Vald Estate)
BOOM—!!!
The chamber walls shook so violently dust rained from the ceilings.
The golden light around Leif flickered. Not dimming. Not fading. But reacting —to something else entering the world.
The goddess staggered backward, clutching her chest as if pierced.
"N–No… NO…!" she gasped. "He sensed it—he sensed it—!! The Devil has sensed Seraph King awakening."
Caelum's wings blazed open. Zephyy arched his back, fur electrified. Haldor drew his sword without conscious thought.
I didn't move.
I couldn't move.
All the noise — the trembling walls, the crackling divinity, the fading shadow of the devil — disappeared beneath the sound of my own heartbeat.
My eyes were fixed on Leif.
On the light around him flickering…shrinking…softening…Until—FWOOM—The radiance collapsed inward, like a dying sun folding itself into a single point.
And then—darkness.
