Ethan gripped the shaft of the spear protruding from his stomach. With a guttural grunt, he ripped the weapon through his own flesh, the metal sliding out with a sickening wet sound. He spat a mouthful of thick, dark blood onto the stones—blood that, if an expert had been present to witness it, pulsed with a faint, swirling mixture of amethyst light and abyssal black.
The wound began to knit together almost instantly, tendrils of Void energy stitching his organs back into place. But it was his eyes that truly changed. The violet light was swallowed by a terrifying, absolute black, and in the center of each pupil, a tiny, jagged amethyst symbol began to coalesce.
The twenty remaining soldiers, veterans of a thousand planetary harvests, felt a primal chill. This wasn't just energy; it was the presence of an apex predator.
