Feng took a deep breath. "Please release me from the [Subjugation]."
"…"
No one said anything for a good few seconds. It was Felicity's gasp that broke the silence at long last.
"W–What are you saying, Jiai?!" she blurted out. "You were the one who told me how amazing [Subjugation] was! Why would you want to throw it away?!"
Her words echoed through the crater, trembling with disbelief. The wind didn't move. Even the lingering mana from their earlier duel seemed to pause in uncertainty.
But Feng didn't answer.
Not immediately.
Instead, she looked straight at Quinlan.
The world seemed to narrow until there was nothing left but the two of them.
No crater, no Felicity, no sky. Just two beings whose paths had intertwined so deeply that words were almost redundant.
Her eyes, twin whirlpools of living force, met his. One spun clockwise, the other counterclockwise, like opposing tides struggling yet harmonizing in eternal motion.
