Elian arrived as the city was tilting into the Ink-Well. The water wasn't just drowning the people; it was erasing them, turning their bodies back into raw ink. Malchor stood at the pinnacle of the Tower, his voice amplified by the Scream-Organs—massive pipes that turned his every word into a shockwave.
Elian didn't use the stairs. He used the Mute-Stone from the mountains. Every time Malchor roared a "Command of Destruction," Elian touched the Stone to the air. The sound didn't just stop; it was swallowed, creating a "Silent Path" that Elian walked up, step by step, through the sky. Malchor's guards tried to intervene, but Elian wove their shouts into a "Cage of Irony," trapping them in the very words they used to threaten him.