Three.
The expansion settles with a low, resonant pressure that vibrates through the ground beneath us.
Corin exhales slowly. “That didn’t feel small.”
“It was not.”
He glances toward the road, where the remains of the lesser demon still mark the threshold. “Something else out there?”
“Yes.”
“Bigger?”
“Yes.”
He nods once, the motion tight but controlled. “Good. I was starting to think things were getting boring.”
“You are adapting to risk at an accelerated rate.”
“I nearly died,” he says. “Everything after that feels like a bonus round.”
“That attitude will produce unnecessary casualties.”
“Or it’ll keep me from freezing when it matters.”
He has a point.
I do not acknowledge it.
Instead, I focus on the pressure at the edge of the expanded lattice.
It brushes against the boundary again, lighter this time, testing rather than pushing. The signature is unmistakable.
Maltherion.
He does not cross.
He does not need to.
The message is clear in the restraint alone.
I remain where I am.
I do not retreat.
Corin shifts his grip on the practice blade. “Tell me what I’m dealing with.”
“A higher-order infernal entity is observing the perimeter.”
He raises a brow. “That sounds like a polite way of saying something dangerous is watching us.”
“It is a precise way of saying it.”
“Is it coming in?”
“No.”
“Yet?”
