It wasn't just a simple rush of strength; it was a total awakening of the blood, a tidal wave of vitality that washed her mortal limits clean out of existence.
Deep within her stomach, her sun core didn't merely swell in size… it deepened into a terrifying, bottomless abyss.
The core pulsed once, sending out an invisible gravitational pull so violent that the surrounding air folded inward.
In one massive, greedy, monstrous gasp, that new abyss devoured every remaining wisp of essence lingering in the hollow.
The stray currents tearing through the forest canopy, the crimson sparks left behind by the shattered boundary, the white mist hovering above the pond… all of it was sucked straight into her chest in a fraction of a second, swallowed whole and locked away beneath that newly forged fifth shell of impenetrable sovereign fire.
Then, the essence storm died.
