I waited until I observed them pull away from the tower.
Only then did I move.
I rose higher above the core layer, the ruined battlefield spread beneath me like a shattered map. The second layer still burned in places. Abominations were dying in clusters, crushed by demon forces that no longer felt fear. The tower stood at the center of it all, wounded but still intact, its surface crawling with cracked runes and leaking deathmist like black smoke from open wounds.
I lifted my hand.
This tower had anchored the rift. It had blinded the system. It had fed the Eternal's invasion and turned an entire zone into a slaughterhouse.
That was enough.
Essence surged from my Core. Every law I commanded answered at once. Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Lightning. Space. Polarity. Resonance.
Above the tower, the void distorted.
A shape began to form.
