Everyone stopped, their movements frozen, their breaths held, as a spider web of cracks started littering across the ground they were standing on.
Sezel was smiling, a strange grin on his face, as if he had known this was coming. Vesta's stance shattered, her sword's descent stopping mid-way, her face a mask of shock.
Shiki tried to jump back, his predatory instincts screaming at him to retreat, but the earth had already given up.
The ground beneath their feet shuddered, and then, with a final groan, it slowly descended, shattering into a thousand pieces of rock and earth.
It was Sezel's puppet. It had been targeting the ground from the very start, its every attack a calculated strike against the hollow earth. It was bound to break at some point.
