The silence didn't just fall.
It collapsed.
Like the air itself had been handed a bill it couldn't afford and decided to stop existing for a moment.
Behind us, someone actually dropped their weapon.
Clang!
That single sound echoed too loudly in the suddenly hollow space.
Malachi's grin didn't fade.
If anything, it widened.
"...Yeah," he murmured, pleased. "That's the reaction I was hoping for."
My grin matched his as I rolled my shoulder once, casually.
Malachi seemed pleased, the crowd seemed surprised, but.
If they thought that was it, then they'd be sorely mistaken.
The space above me rippled.
Not violently.
Not explosively.
Just… opening.
And then they came flooding out.
Not one.
Not ten.
But enough that the ground immediately stopped looking like ground.
The space expanding continuously as the space expansion runes were put to serious work.
