Chapter 571: The Absence Field
The Warden looked nothing like the other guardians on this floor. Black armor covered a tall, empty shape, with no eye slits or other openings in its blank helmet. A narrow spear made from the same light-eating material rested in its practiced grip.
The third fragment waited behind a plate in its chest. That was where Leon needed to strike.
The Warden advanced.
Leon answered with a test rather than a full attack. He shaped a tight burst of fire and sent it straight at the center of the guardian's body, watching to see how it reacted.
The flame crossed the chamber and reached the thick darkness around the Warden.
Then it ceased.
Nothing knocked it aside. The armor hadn't blocked it, and the spell hadn't lost a contest of power. Its core entered the shadow, and the fire simply stopped existing, as though that part of the room rejected the idea that flame belonged there.
Leon noted it and moved.
