Aerion did not wait for Raziel to accept the offer.
The Crown Prince slammed his heavy, silver-plated gauntlet over Raziel's scarred right hand.
The handshake was an immediate transfer of power, a brutal, deliberate contact between the Umbral Anomaly and the legitimate Paragon Heir.
VMMMM!
A violent, visible pulse of energy exploded from their joined hands.
The light was a blinding coil of Aerion's pure gold Paragon essence twisting with Raziel's black Umbral rot.
A jagged, dark fissure appeared from the crown to the base. Dust rained from the high ceiling.
The twenty surviving Paladins in the chamber drew steel on instinct.
The sound of their broadswords scraping from the sheaths was a single, unified roar of metallic fury. They did not target the Prince. They targeted Raziel.
Raziel did not flinch. He registered the twenty points of lethal threat but felt no panic.
The Sovereign Override, the seventh Forbidden Gift, hummed deep inside his chest.
