Chapter 112 - The Sacrificial Load

The air in the hidden chamber had turned into a physical weight, thick with the taste of ozone and the static prickle of raw, unrefined mana. Every time the central sphere ticked, a wave of pressure hit my chest, threatening to collapse my lungs. The silver rings of the cage were spinning at such a high velocity that they had blurred into a solid, shimmering cylinder of light, and the temperature in the room was climbing by the second. I could feel the Centurion through the granite pillar, its silver-inlaid bones vibrating in sympathy with the ancient machine. It wasn't just a resonance anymore; the construct was acting as a lightning rod for a storm that had been brewing for half a millennium.