Ataneya got what Ethan was signaling.
Her twenty-four fox tails stopped maintaining the circular prison and drew back in a smooth retreat, returning to hover behind her.
Ethan took a slow breath.
In the stunned silence of everyone watching, white energy surged into his palm and swelled—fast—until it became an absurdly massive sphere.
The dense glow lit up every nearby mechanical egg like a field of lanterns.
The white mechanical dinosaurs clustered around Ethan all lifted their heads at once, their eyes stripped down to a single emotion:
Hunger.
Ethan raised his hand and pointed at Vexara.
"Go."
"Kill her, and all this food is yours."
The white dinosaurs pivoted in unison.
The Vexara they'd treated as "mother" a moment ago was now just the thing standing between them and a meal.
To these mechanical lives, Ethan was the only one who could actually fill them.
So the "fake owner" trying to control them?
Punishment.
