Chapter 148: Line Whipping
Beneath the stillness, his stomach knotted tighter, twisting under the weight of everything he couldn’t say out loud.
A Block was already fragile — Kikaru’s reports flashing in his memory, warnings about the Asurik tensions building under the surface. Tidwell’s scattered alerts about unrest threading through the sectors.
They didn’t have time for him to doubt.
They barely had time for anything.
The screens flickered again, another silent replay. Roachaline’s Chaos Reign in slow motion — a shattering ripple of soldiers across the broken landscape. Lyra’s Tempest Rush carving a spiral of death through the survivors, the movement almost beautiful if it hadn’t been so final.
The carnage stretched across the screens like a wound no one knew how to close.
Elias breathed in, slow and shallow, the motion stiff in his chest. He didn’t look away.
He couldn’t.
Across the table, Geras leaned forward, elbows braced against the tabletop, the data reports crinkling beneath his rough hands. Lines carved deep across his grizzled face, fatigue dragging at the edges of his voice.
"Data’s gold," he said, the words heavy, worn thin. "Chaos Reign’s got a fifty-meter range. Tempest Rush hits like a damn cyclone."
He tapped one of the reports with two fingers, the sound a soft, sharp crack against the steel. His eyes stayed hard.