CHAPTER 85 — The World After Silence
Silence was never empty.
It pressed against the realms like a held breath, vast and watchful, settling into the spaces where chaos once screamed. After the Devourer’s binding, after the sky healed and the dead zone stilled, the world did not erupt into celebration.
It waited.
Gabriella felt that waiting everywhere she went.
She stood at the edge of the dead zone’s former heart, boots sinking into soil that should not yet exist. The land beneath her feet was new, dark and rich, threaded with faint veins of silver light. Grass had begun to grow in thin, defiant patches, blades shimmering as if unsure whether they were allowed to live.
Behind her, the four Alphas stood in a loose semicircle, giving her space but never distance.
Tristan watched the h
