The silence in the chamber was suffocating.
Not a single voice had risen to comment on anything Alex had said. Not one question had been raised about the impossible-sounding claims regarding the Demon King, not one word about the audacity of offering seven continents to end a war as though the offer were his to make.
The silence held for a long minute after Alex vanished from the feed entirely, the stream showing nothing but the wounded city and the sky above it and the new Emperor standing in the space where the Domain Ruler had been.
Viewers, host, and guild leaders alike remained exactly where they were, suspended in the particular stillness of people who had witnessed something that had not yet finished arriving in their understanding.
The day had begun with the guilds managing their image in front of a captive audience.
