The tear split through the air at the far end of the battlefield, and every living thing felt it. The zombies froze mid-step. The Titans stopped closing in on Remedy. Even the flying creatures overhead went still, hovering in place as if reality itself had paused to acknowledge what had just arrived.
Then Adam stepped through.
Ivy felt it before she saw it. The aura rolled across the battlefield like a wave breaking against a shore, thick with death affinity and something else entirely, something that pressed down on the chest and made the air feel heavy. Beside her, Scott stiffened, his eyes snapping upward toward the tear. Felecia's breath caught in her throat.
"Adam?" Felecia said.
It wasn't a question. Not really. They all knew that aura. They had felt traces of it before, back when he recently joined them. But this - this was something else. This was that same presence, but amplified, refined, stripped of everything uncertain and left as pure, concentrated force.
