The moment the hunters raised their hands, the air changed.
It felt as if invisible pages were being turned all around them.
Mira moved first. "Stello kinesis!"
The space around two of the hunters hardened, locking their bodies in place. They struggled, but the world itself refused their movement.
The others kept walking.
One of them lifted his hand and spoke a single word.
"Delete."
The street rippled.
A nearby wall faded, not crumbling but simply vanishing, as if it had never been written.
Kael felt his chest tighten.
"That's what they want to do to me," he whispered.
Elias stepped in front of him. "Not if we stop them."
The Lexicon in his bag burned with heat.
Without thinking, Elias opened it.
Words began to appear on the pages, forming themselves as if the book was responding to the danger.
A single word stood out.
Aletheia.[1]
Elias spoke it.
Light exploded around them.
For a moment, everything froze not because of Stello Kinesis, but because the world itself was being forced to reveal something it had tried to hide.
The hunters staggered back.
Kael dropped to his knees, gasping. "I'm… still here."
Mira stared at Elias in shock. "You just overwrote their command."
Somewhere far above the city, the sky shifted.
The first true fracture in reality had been made.
[1] Aletheia is a revelation spell that forces hidden truth to surface, making illusions, edits, and false versions of reality temporarily collapse so the world is seen as it truly is.