Lucen landed in a crouch. Hand snapped up.
[Shockweave Bolt – Fired]
The tracking dart hissed through the air, light-blue, sparking.
The creature reached up.
And caught it.
Barehanded.
Lucen stared.
Then his spell shattered in its grip like it had never been cast.
A pause.
Then the thing said, softly, inside his mind:
"You don't belong here, Sovereign."
Lucen's blood went cold.
Not because of the word.
Because it wasn't guessing.
It knew.
—
Lucen didn't move.
His fingers flexed slightly, but no sigil formed. Not yet. Not while the thing stood motionless three meters away, the air between them quiet as a broken seal.
The mask didn't change. Still blank. Still bone-pale with that single black slit where the eye should've been. Nothing inside it.
Just dark.
He swallowed once.
Then spoke. Calm. Even.
"Say that again."