The chamber no longer felt like a battlefield.
It felt like something else entirely.
Not calm. Not safe. But controlled in a way that hadn't existed before. The shattered pillars still stood, though barely, their fractured surfaces glowing faintly with the blue energy flowing through Adrian's network. Cracks spread across the ground beneath him, remnants of impacts that should have ended everything long ago.
And yet—
Everything still held together.
Because he was holding it together.
Adrian stood at the center, breathing steady but heavy enough to remind him that his body hadn't caught up to what his mind had begun to understand. Every movement he made still carried strain. Every breath still carried weight.
But it no longer overwhelmed him.
It answered him.
That was the difference.
The creature remained still for a moment longer, its massive form looming above the fractured ground. Its red eyes didn't burn with aggression now. They watched. Calculated. Measured.
