Sarah's Perspective - During the Battle
Celestial Epicure Amadeus—known in another life as Dr. Sarah Whitmore—stood among the Master-level cultivators in the VIP viewing area, her hands trembling despite eighty-five thousand years of cultivation and emotional control.
It was him.
She'd known the moment she'd seen him at the tea house, though he hadn't recognized her through the veil. How could she forget those eyes? That methodical way of moving? The slight tilt of his head when analyzing something complex?
Elias Vance. Her Elias. The man she'd loved in silence for decades. The man who'd died in a quantum upload pod while she was away visiting family. The man whose last words to her had been in a video recording that had shattered her heart and driven her to follow him into digital oblivion.
And now he was fighting Marcus Thornheart, and Sarah couldn't breathe.
