The battlefield froze.
It was not because of the enemy beyond the fracture, nor the grinding structure of the prison, nor the reality collapsing around them. It froze because the First King sounded afraid.
A single word had echoed through the Kingdom network, flat and filled with foreboding: "Oh."
The Queen stiffened. The Founder stopped breathing entirely, his translucent shoulders locking in place. The Old Bastard's expression darkened into something uncharacteristically grave, all trace of his former levity washed away in an instant. Beside the First King, the silver-haired woman narrowed her golden eyes, her playful demeanor vanishing like mist under a sudden frost.
Orion broke the heavy silence with a direct, calculated question. "What shouldn't be awake?"
Nobody answered immediately. The heavy quiet stretched for several long, suffocating seconds before the First King let out a long, shuddering sigh that carried the crushing weight of uncounted eons.
