Chapter 489 - Taming the Probing Roots
The destruction of the first core had been a masterstroke.
"Now it shouldn’t be able to expand as it should," Coleoran explained, rising from his throne to walk toward them, looking at Kassian with special interest. "Its complete form can no longer be. The other cradles no longer make sense without the main core that would coordinate them."
It was a victory that compensated for many of the recent ’small’ losses. Without the golden light’s ability to coordinate and expand systematically, their enemies had lost one of their most dangerous weapons.
And what had once been a network of interconnected threats had become isolated pockets of resistance, each vulnerable without the central coordination that would have made them so formidable.
Kassian nodded with approval, but Ravenspire remained more cautious. The enemy had used the light in the war, and his refined instincts were detecting other nuances in his king’s mood.
He was right...
"But there’s a problem," Coleoran admitted, his expression hardening.
He turned toward them, and for the first time since they had entered, they could see the real frustration he had been hiding behind his political confidence.
"The damned fool King has returned."
Coleoran could feel Dragarion’s power from here, a presence that pulsed on the horizon like a distant but inevitable storm.
The sensation was both familiar and unsettling. It had been years since he had felt that particular signature of overwhelming power, and its return changed every calculation he had been making about the war’s trajectory.
"I had almost forgotten how it felt to perceive that power," he admitted bitterly, "but without doubt he’s a formidable rival despite our new potion, despite the new level we’ve reached."