The darkness held. "Eclipse Sun" remained above them like a black law nailed into the false sky, and beneath it Roberto's dimension had been reduced to flashes, pale fragments of ground swallowed by shadow and returned only when light tore through them. Roberto stood a few steps away, clearly wounded now. Blood kept running from the deep line across his torso and down one leg, one arm lower than the other, his breathing heavier than before. The damage was real. So was the danger.
Noel did not relax. Someone like Roberto did not become harmless just because he was bleeding. Not after all the cycles he had endured. Not after surviving that long by refusing to die when the world had already decided he should. Noel kept Revenant Fang raised and his weight balanced, eyes fixed on even the smallest changes in Roberto's posture.
Roberto noticed. "You're still cautious." His voice was tired, but the edge in it remained. A faint, humorless curve touched his mouth. "Good."
