A Decree

Max lifted his gaze.

The sky darkened.

Clouds churned, thick and heavy, spiraling in on themselves. The air turned electric—charged with something far beyond natural.

Something ancient. Something inevitable.

Max's expression hardened.

He knew.

He'd seen this before.

And he knew exactly who was coming.

The swirling black mass morphed, folding inward, condensing—until a face emerged.

A face of authority. Malice. Power.

Then—

BOOM.

A pressure unlike anything before descended.

The East Region trembled. The ground cracked. The weight of it crushed the air, pressing down with suffocating force.

People staggered, knees buckling, unable to withstand it. Some collapsed entirely, their bodies trembling under the sheer force of his presence.

For many, it felt like their very souls were being squeezed.

The weight of the world itself had doubled.