The broadcast sent a shockwave rippling through the supernatural elements entrenched across Magnolia Valley, its effects unfolding almost instantly.
Only moments earlier, as Ethan delivered his initial decree, many Energy Users had reacted with open contempt. Lounging across commandeered living rooms, they sneered at the young man on their screens, laughing loudly and trading mocking remarks while terrified homeowners hovered nearby, forced to serve drinks with shaking hands. To them, Ethan's words sounded like empty bravado, a threat spoken too far away to matter.
The civilians thought differently.
Those ordinary people, who had only recently felt the faint, unsettling stirrings of Energy awakening within their bodies, clung to the broadcast with fragile, desperate hope. Yet even that hope felt thin. The invaders occupying their homes seemed unstoppable, closer to natural disasters than people, and Ethan's promises felt distant, almost unreal.
Then the feed changed.
