Ethan walked over to the heavy iron door, reaching for the latch to secure it from the inside. When he grabbed the metal handle and pulled, it refused to budge.
"Lupis locked the door," Ethan announced. His voice echoed hollowly across the stone vault.
Marcus frowned and joined him at the entrance, pushing against the iron while searching the frame for a hidden lever. The door remained completely unyielding.
"Stand back," Ethan instructed, raising his hands to generate a kinetic barrier. He intended to smash the hinges and force their way out of the estate before Iron-Scale arrived.
However, the moment his magic touched the metal, the barrier sputtered and dissipated into harmless sparks. Ethan stumbled backward, staring at his palms in shock. "My magic is barely working."
Liam stepped up to the wall, trying to summon a bone spike from the floor. A tiny fragment of calcified material cracked through the stone before instantly crumbling into dust.
