The messenger shook his head with difficulty, his eyes red and swollen, tears frozen into clear beads of ice.
"His Majesty has ordered 'no audience and closed doors'. She has vanished, without any response." His voice trembled, lost and adrift. "I don't know where Yi Lin has gone, only that wherever it is, it's growing more and more dangerous…"
Silence shrouded the command hall, and the expressions on every face gradually froze into a cold, resolute mask.
A kind of ominous foreboding never felt before rose unbidden: not only the dire calamity outside, but a more intricate, unknown unrest brewing within.
And the former ally Yi Lin was now nowhere to be found, adding layers of doubt and foreshadowing to the already tangled situation.
Liya tightened her grip on the Magic Staff once more. Her face was pale, yet her voice was steady. "We have to reinforce the Rune Protection Array as quickly as possible, to create a safe environment for His Majesty's recovery.
