There was no longer any room to delay.
The air itself seemed to tighten as if it had grown a spine and was pressing down on everyone gathered in the courtyard.
The recruits stood stiffly in their new formation, shoulders squared too hard, chins lifted too high, eyes darting despite their efforts to appear calm.
"Hurry!" Cornelia ordered.
One by one, they released the blood mana they had gained during their breakthroughs.
It did not explode outward. It did not roar.
Instead, it crept.
A thin haze bled out from their pores, curling slowly around their bodies like breath on a cold night.
The color was deep red at first, but as it thickened, faint silvery threads shimmered through it, reflecting the moonlight overhead.
The mana pulsed with a steady rhythm, rising and falling in time with their heartbeats, and the ground beneath their boots darkened as if drinking in the excess.
Cornelia's eyes narrowed.
