Lucien looked toward Lootwell in the distance.
People moved through the city as they always had.
Training fields remained active. Instant Teleportation formations flashed. Merchant districts stayed crowded.
Someone somewhere was probably arguing with Clara about chapel placement.
It looked peaceful.
That was the strange part.
The world had become calmer precisely when the things beyond it were becoming more dangerous.
Lucien had spent years building layers of protection around everyone.
Now Alanthuriel was telling him that Extinction Grade was not some triumphant endpoint.
It was simply the point where Lucien finally possessed enough connection to reality that the Abyss could no longer dispose of him casually without causing consequences.
Lucien almost laughed.
Apparently, survival had qualifications.
He had just passed one.
•••
The pressure settled over him again.
He had felt it before.
