Merek shot backward, still in motion from the strike of the axe… As much as the old man wanted to stop himself, he just couldn't.
There was something strange in that impact… energy he hadn't felt in centuries.
No, wait.
He had felt one of these energies before. When he'd been trapped inside Yggdrasil, sealed away in that prison of living wood and ancient roots, he'd sensed this exact signature pulsing through the tree's heartwood.
He had coined it divinity back then.
'So this boy…' Merek's eyes widened as he spun through the air with his staff raised defensively. 'This half-elf is wielding divinity? Not just one… but multiple divine sources layered together?'
The realization hit harder than the axe had.
'I must capture him. Study him. Decipher how he—'
BOOM.
The air itself exploded.
Merek barely had time to position his staff before Azel crashed into him like a meteor wrapped in golden light.
