The command left my lips like a final verdict.
"Come."
For a heartbeat, the forest stood still.
No wind. No sound.
Even the trees, twisted and gnarled, seemed to recoil, bowing in a silence that felt… reverent.
Then it began.
From the center of my chest, where the null core spun in solemn rhythm, a crimson pulse flared. It was not light. Not flame. It was heavier than either. A dense, living crimson mist began to billow outward from my body, rolling over the earth like smoke dragged through blood.
The mist thickened and pulsed, forming a great sphere of swirling red around me.
Inside it, something moved, a silhouette, shifting and contorting within the veil. A shriek echoed, distant but rising, like the call of a storm-born god.
A beat passed.
Then—
FWOOOM.
