The bloodlust returned the moment the laughter faded.
This time it was worse. Significantly worse.
The shadows around Vegeta didn't just darken — they moved, writhing and twisting like living things. The ground beneath his feet cracked, small fissures spreading outward from where he stood. His eyes went fully black, no white visible, solid darkness that seemed to draw light inward rather than reflect it.
The pressure was crushing. Not metaphorically — physically crushing, a force that hit the chest and worked its way down to the knees. Aldric felt his body sending very clear signals about what it wanted to do, all of them involving getting significantly lower to the ground. Behind him, one of his guards did drop — not by choice, falling to his knees and breathing in shallow gasps like someone whose body had made a unilateral decision.
