Silence held them all in its grip.
Not the kind that came from awe or reverence, but the kind born from horror. From an impossible truth finally made real.
The head of Khepri, once the unshakable Patriarch of the Earth Clan, lay in the hands of the very boy they had dismissed. The very boy they had wronged.
It wasn't until the waves of residual mana from the battle began to settle that the truth struck them with its full force.
They could finally feel it.
Alex's mana signature—now unshrouded in his weakened state.
A Grandmaster.
The same rank as most of them.
No more. No less.
And yet…
He had crushed Khepri. Not through deceit, or traps, or alliances—but in a one-on-one confrontation.
Their minds could barely process it.
Disbelief etched itself into every line of the elders' aging faces as a single, shared thought surged like ice water through their veins:
'What will happen to us now?'
Lucy was the first to react.
