"What have you done?!"
Darius roared, his voice thunderous, shaking the treetops. Fury surged through his veins like wildfire. Even though he'd been wary of the newcomers from the Divine Sun Empire, this—this blatant recklessness—was something he refused to tolerate.
His instincts screamed for blood. For a moment, he genuinely wanted to slap the old man into oblivion, to erase his existence with one strike.
Ricky's reaction was no different.
But unlike Darius, who simmered with barely contained rage, Ricky's mind had already moved ahead—calculating. Reading the danger. And the conclusion he reached was simple.
Now was not the time to fight.
Now was the time to run.
"Escape!" he bellowed, his voice sharp and commanding, echoing across the trembling forest.
Without wasting another breath, his form burst into a howling surge of black current, streaking through the air like a shadowy comet.
