Chapter 76: Alex vs The Earth Patriarch (2)
A Few Minutes Before Nyxara Released Her Mana
Three weeks.
Khepri stood at the edge of the observation deck, fingers curled loosely around the cold steel railing as the ship hovered above the mist-wrapped mountains of Tanzania. The low engine hum beneath his boots did little to settle the quiet storm brewing in his chest. Three weeks of scanning, searching, waiting—and still, nothing.
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The crew moved like ghosts in a steel tomb, their movements mechanica and drained of spirit. Every footstep was muted, and every breath carried the weight of growing despair. The hum of the ship’s systems echoed like a distant heartbeat, too faint to soothe the tension gripped the air. The once crisp uniforms now hung wrinkled and sweat-stained on weary shoulders.
Flickering lights bathed the control room in intermittent pulses of sterile blue, casting long, shifting shadows that made the corners seem alive. The silence wasn’t peaceful—it was heavy and oppressive, like the ship itself holding its breath in anticipation of something that refused to come.
Technicians slouched at their stations, their faces pale, their eyes red and glassy from days without sleep. Fingers danced across holographic controls and touchscreen panels with the sluggish desperation of routine that had lost meaning. They were chasing ghosts—spectral signals, theoretical energy traces, myths that had already frayed their sanity. Some whispered to themselves, recalculating for the hundredth time, unwilling to accept the void on their screens. across dozens of miles—remained stubbornly silent. Not even a blip.
It didn’t make sense.
Legend-rank beasts weren’t subtle. They were walking catastrophes, nature’s fury given form. When they moved, the land trembled. Mana swelled. The skies reacted. The world remembered. But here? Nothing. No residual mana. No seismic disruption. Not even a whisper on the wind.
Khepri clenched his jaw. Time was slipping through his fingers like dry sand. He couldn’t afford to stay much longer—not without raising suspicion. The other Highers would notice his absence. Questions would follow. Doubts. And all his careful maneuvering would begin to unravel.
Just silence. And the weight of expectation pressed down on him and his crew like gravity with no escape.