Garrett climbed out from behind his shattered pillar, blood running down his arm as he smiled.
"Nice work."
His voice carried genuine respect.
Then movement came the crater.
Vasek rose.
His body was a ruin. Burns covered every visible inch — third-degree, charring, some areas still smoking. His clothes had been incinerated entirely, leaving him naked from the waist up. His hair was gone, replaced by a scorched scalp that wept fluid. Blood dripped from a dozen places where the lightning had punched through fire-weakened flesh and cauterized the wounds shut.
He looked miserable.
His eyes were something else entirely.
"I didn't want to use this against a bunch of children." His voice was hoarse, crackling like burning paper. "But you give me no choice."
He reached into the wreckage beside him — a small pouch that had somehow survived the crater — and produced a jade pill bottle. The pill inside glowed with soft green light. Heaven Grade. Without hesitation, Vasek swallowed it.
