The silence in his head lasted a single, horrifying heartbeat. Then the bonds flooded back, not with warmth, but with a jagged, staticky pain. It felt like his spiritual veins were filled with ground glass.
The guardian took another step, and the violet energy sea below them pulsed in time.
A deep, resonant hum began to build, not from the guardian, but from the chamber itself. The ancient iron walls, the corrupted crystal veins, the very air started to vibrate. Symbols Lin Tian hadn't noticed before—sickly purple lines of power—glowed to life across the floor of the ledge, connecting the guardian, the tunnel mouth, and their own feet.
It's not just a sentinel, the System's voice cut through the psychic noise, clinical and urgent. It is the activation node for a large-scale spatial array. Designation: Desolation Array. Primary function: Amplify Anti-Resonance to critical levels within a bounded zone.
"Scatter!" Lin Tian yelled, but it was too late.
