---
"This must be an illusion," he muttered.
He flexed his will, engaged Aura Sink. It's a defensive lattice that bled hostile aura away from someone's body (learned in the training of ant Kingdom before the desert mission). The whisper persisted, unfazed.
"This is no illusion," the voice insisted, it was calm as a shoreline at dusk. "If I meant you harm, your bones would already be drifting beneath the sea or buried in the sand."
Kai's jaw tensed. "If you are so powerful," he called aloud across the gulf of air and salt spray, "why summon me? Why ask me for help? Surely a titan needs no help from a wanderer on a ridge."
A hush followed for five heartbeats, perhaps ten. It was enough for gulls to circle once more overhead.
Then the air cooled.
Not the breeze, but the energy permeating it, then an intense breath-thieving pressure came that swept over the cliff and punched into Kai's chest as if reality itself had inhaled too sharply. His skin prickled. His body armor hummed.
