The battlefield did not fall silent after the horde collapsed.
Silence would have been mercy.
Instead, the air shifted.
Heavy.
Watchful.
Alvin felt it first.
"Back," he said quietly.
Jax reacted instantly, wind snapping outward into a defensive ring around the group. Xavier's flames dimmed but did not vanish. Daniel stepped toward Luis instinctively.
That was when Luis saw them.
"…There," he whispered.
Near the fractured remains of the overpass, half-buried beneath ash and shattered bone, something glimmered faintly.
Not metal.
Not crystal.
Organic.
Luis moved before anyone could stop him.
"Luis—" Daniel's voice sharpened.
"I see something!"
Daniel cursed under his breath and followed, explosion energy coiling tight around his palms like caged thunder.
They moved carefully across broken ground, boots crunching over brittle remains.
Luis knelt.
Half-buried in blackened soil were several small pods—smooth, pale, faintly pulsing with dim golden veins.
