"Master A," Julian breathed, the name a bitter whisper.
The cultivator from the Myanmar temple, the man Julian had defeated, stood before them, his presence far more potent, far more dangerous than before. His Aetherium signature pulsed with a deeper, more refined corruption, his eyes burning with an incandescent fury and an unsettling hunger. He was no longer the desperate mercenary Julian had bested; he was a sharpened weapon, clearly empowered by the Konsili.
"Ah, Guardian Ravenscroft," Master A sneered, his voice a low, venomous growl that resonated through the chamber, dripping with a chillingly familiar disdain. "You always find your way to the heart of things, don't you? A predictable, if tenacious, rodent." He gestured to the Aetherium Eye with a dramatic flourish of his hand, hi
