The screech of shearing metal echoed off the obsidian cliffs as Captain Seret's blade penetrated three inches into the King's pulsing sternum seam.
For half a heartbeat, the pulsing crimson glow within the titan's chest flickered, starved of oxygen as molten sparks showered the mud.
The imperial conscripts holding the defensive line exhaled a ragged, collective gasp of hope, believing the nightmare ended.
Across the distant ridge, Cessy and Lucan lowered their brass scrying monocles, their sharp demonic senses detecting the sudden drop in raw energy output.
Yet instead of collapsing onto the cobblestones, the monstrous entity let out a deafening, vibrating roar that caused the bedrock beneath the avenue to heave upward.
A catastrophic shockwave of compressed crimson mana detonated outward from the punctured casing, throwing Captain Seret twenty paces through the air.
