Teleth remained mostly unbothered. Actually, he had expected this outcome.
"You may have won this time, but hear me, Erient's incarnation," he said, his voice already beginning to fade.
Icard's eyes widened at the mention of Erient's name.
"I will find you eventually, and I will consume you completely. Mark my words"
His presence thinned, slowly drawn upward along the cylinder, and then vanished.
The violent surge of energy did not stop at once. It took a few moments before the turbulence finally calmed.
The black ring cracked with a sound like shattering glass, fractures spiderwebbing across its surface.
Then it disintegrated, breaking apart into nothingness.
And in the following seconds, it was gone.
Both presences, the Keeper and the herald, had vanished completely.
In their place, where the black ring had sealed the space, a hollow remained. A black pit yawned open in the ground, stretching down into the earth with no visible bottom.
