The cold amber fire along Eloy's forearm didn't go out.
It just sat there, tracing the lines of his veins, silent and unwelcome. He flexed his fingers. The Shadow Mark responded, a slow pulse of light that sent a second of deeper chill into his knuckles.
The constructs stood in their ring. Seven of them. Eighteen had entered the Resonance Chamber. Two crushed by Isolde's ceiling collapse. Nine more destroyed during the push to the altar. The remainder had frozen mid-strike when the Core pulsed gold instead of red.
Now they watched, or didn't watch. They had no eyes, at least not that Eloy could see. Their markers on Eloy's HUD were neutral grey, the label beneath each one reading [ALIGNMENT: ANOMALY BEARER — STANDBY].
[LMAO_cat]: bro got himself a pet rock squad
[crispyfry99]: SEVEN OF THEM JUST STANDING THERE LIKE WAITING FOR A BUS
[IsoldeSimp47]: they're so still i forgot they were there for a second
