For the first few seconds after Aegis' shield shattered, Kain didn't react.
He didn't breathe. Didn't blink.
His mind was already spiralling through possibilities, calculations, and outcomes—most of them bad.
Aegis wasn't supposed to be affected by Dmitri's blood attribute. That had been the entire premise for why he summoned him and Bea (and Chewy). But not Vauleth or the Vespids. He had no blood. No veins. He was a stone construct whose true core was microscopic and embedded so deep within the shell that most scanners couldn't even detect it. He was supposed to be immune.
So why…
Kain had thought about it too simply. He should have known that an elemental affinity that can support an old noble house and be considered powerful even when placed amongst noble houses with dragon, phoenix, and mental affinities, it can't be so easily combated.
