Moments later,

Aria

The red wave had receded, leaving the atmosphere charged with a heavy, metallic sweetness - the scent of a conquered rift. But the silence that followed wasn't empty.

It was filled with the rhythmic, synchronized breathing of hundreds of people who had emerged from the shadows of the Blackwood estate.

As I stood there, still draped in the shredded remnants of my silk finery and the gore of a dead Golem, the movement began.

It wasn't a chaotic surge. It was a slow, deliberate tide. Leo was the first to move, stepping back from my side and dropping to one knee on the scorched earth. Then came...