Vance froze, his entire body trembling as though his bones had been hollowed out.
His eyes widened until the whites showed, his pupils trembling, reflecting the faint red glow still pulsing on Vonjo's fingertip.
He stumbled backward, boots scraping against the cracked marble floor, the sound loud in the suffocating silence of the hall. His words spilled out in fragmented stutters, his once-confident tongue betraying him.
"Y-Y-You… you… that… t-that's… Crimson D-Doom… y-you… b-but…" His voice faltered, catching in his dry throat. He scrambled back another step, his heel catching on a fragment of debris, and he nearly fell before flailing to catch his balance. "Y-You—h-h-how… Vonjo… big b-b-brother… you…"
Every attempt at a sentence died halfway, strangled by terror. His breath came in ragged bursts, and beads of sweat slid down his pale forehead.
