Chapter 77: Alex vs The Earth Patriarch (3)
It was as if reality cracked.
The surge of mana that burst from Nyxara wasn’t merely power—it was cataclysmic authority. It didn’t ripple through the Earth Estate—it devoured it.
The sky over the estate turned black and gold, shimmering like liquid metal torn by lightning. A crushing pressure fell upon the land like a mountain had dropped from the heavens, invisible but inescapable. Mana-sensors overloaded and shorted out instantly; protective wards across the estate shattered like brittle glass under a divine hammer.
People screamed—and then went silent.
Across training fields, inner gardens, homes, and guard barracks, bodies fell. Not from an attack, but from the sheer weight of her mana. More than half the Earth Estate’s population dropped unconscious in a single breathless moment. Some fell mid-step, others mid-sentence. Children collapsed in the arms of their panicked parents. Warriors who hadn’t even faced a blow sank to their knees, gasping for breath that no longer came—then crumpled.
And some... didn’t get back up at all.
Mundane workers—gardeners, cooks, attendants, builders—those who had never advanced beyond Intermediate Rank, whose lives revolved around simple labor within the mighty Earth Clan... died where they stood. Their hearts ruptured. Blood vessels burst. Their spirits were crushed by a pressure their bodies were never meant to endure.
The estate turned into still-life paintings of panic and collapse. Some higher-ranked warriors managed to stay upright, running from one body to another, desperately trying to rouse them, to stabilize them, to understand what just happened—but there was no time.
Because the sky was still burning.
Inside the Collapsed Hall
Stone dust floated in the air like ash after a volcanic eruption. Debris lay scattered across the shattered floor. The grand hall that once held pillars of marble and authority was now a broken husk. Chunks of the ceiling lay smashed over fallen furniture and cracked tile. Light filtered in through gaping holes in the walls, illuminating the ruined majesty.