The air rippled with remnants of Nyxara's release. The scent of scorched stone and fear drifted upward on the wind, but Alex stood still—unmoved.
Below them, chaos reigned.
Buildings shattered. People screamed. Hundreds of warriors and civilians lay collapsed across the vast Earth Estate like scattered leaves after a storm. Some would wake. Many never would.
Alex said nothing. He simply watched.
There was no anger in his gaze. No satisfaction either. No trace of guilt or hesitation. Just the steady rise and fall of his breath as his eyes swept across the devastation.
It was quiet on the mountaintop—eerily so. Too quiet for what had just unfolded.
Then—
His eyes shifted south.
He felt it. That pressure surging forward from the distant horizon. A force—immense power, and closing in fast.
"The Earth Patrician," he murmured under his breath.
His aura was unmistakable. Heavy. Absolute. Rooted in the very marrow of the earth itself.
Alex's gaze narrowed slightly.
