The ocean did not calm.
It settled.
Like something vast had risen… and chosen, for now, not to destroy everything in its wake.
The battlefield was gone.
Not erased—but transformed.
Where constructs had stood, there were only drifting fragments of shattered metal, slowly sinking into the depths. The currents no longer raged in chaotic spirals—they moved with intention, guided by something deeper, something newly awakened.
By her.
And at the center of it all—
Aerin finally faltered.
The power receded all at once.
Not violently.
Not abruptly.
But like a tide pulling back after a storm—leaving behind stillness… and exhaustion.
Her body gave out.
If Caelum hadn't caught her, she would have sunk straight into the dark below.
"Aerin."
His voice was quieter now. Not commanding. Not strategizing.
Worried.
Noctyrr appeared at her other side almost instantly, his usual sharpness stripped down to something rawer.
