The air felt too heavy, as if every particle was imbued with the power Strax had unleashed seconds before.
He remained standing in the center of the reshaped void, his silhouette still distorted by the energy that refused to completely disappear. The ground around him was a living scar: fragments of reality still mending themselves, desperately trying to return to what they once called "the world."
Strax took a deep breath.
Once.
Twice.
And then, as if he had wrenched something from within himself, he diminished the aura surrounding him. It wasn't simple. It wasn't like extinguishing a flame; it was like trying to compress an entire ocean into a glass jar. His body creaked, bones readjusting, muscles contorting, scales dissolving into shadows until he was once again in his human form.
The silence returned. But it wasn't the same.
Before, silence was absence. Now, silence was respect.
Strax's glowing eyes moved slowly to the four women before him.
