The first Azure Phoenix enforcers forced the partial breach wider with overlapping formation strikes. Controlled fire and binding lattices poured through the gap in the entrance lattice. Lydia met them with a sequenced disruption cascade that scattered the initial wave and bought the critical breaths Vale needed to stabilize the spatial tear on the far wall.
Elizabeth and I held the secondary line. Her cultivated energy formed a dense barrier that absorbed the residual force of the strikes that leaked past Lydia's cascade. I kept the god-heart remnant in a controlled open cycle just wide enough to reinforce the barrier without feeding the mark's deeper claim. The raw skin of my forearm ached under the attention the residual wills had left behind, yet the mark itself remained quiet for the moment.
