Then, He disappeared.
No sound. No dramatic flash. One moment he was there, palm pressed against the ancient burning heart of the solar system, and the next he was gone. The core continued its slow, sleeping pulse, indifferent.
Bruce reappeared in Earth's upper atmosphere.
Below him the planet turned, blue and green and white, wrapped in cloud and light. From here it looked peaceful. It always did from this distance. That was the lie the view told. He knew what was underneath those clouds. Dungeons portals. Fractured cities. People scraping forward one day at a time, trying to stay alive in a world that had fundamentally changed underneath them.
He looked at it for a long moment.
Then he let go.
The domain unfolded like a breath being released after being held for too long.
It didn't explode outward. It expanded, steady and enormous, rolling out from Bruce in every direction with the quiet inevitability of a tide coming in.
