Marcus descended slowly, his feet touching the scorched earth where the monastery had been. The transformation was still ongoing, his body struggling to contain the Void energy without losing his human consciousness entirely. It was like trying to hold an ocean in his mind while keeping his human thoughts intact.
Ezra approached carefully, his white cultivation marks glowing defensively but not aggressively. "Can you hear me?" he asked.
"I can hear you," Marcus replied, his voice sounding like two people speaking at once—one human, one something far older and more primal. "I can hear everything now. I can feel the presence of every cultivator within a hundred kilometers. I can sense the flow of energy through the earth itself."
"Are you still yourself?" Ezra asked, the question critical
