The Reincarnation Disc still turned beside Lucien.
The souls did not stop arriving.
Some came trembling.
Some came quietly.
Some came with the last heat of battle still clinging to them.
Lucien did not look away from them anymore.
He could not save every life.
That truth remained cruel.
But if people were going to risk their lives in this war, then they deserved to know what they were risking them against.
Enough that the dead would not have died against a shadow no one dared name.
Lucien looked at the projected map of the five continents.
Then he opened the public channel again.
Across the Big World, communication devices brightened.
This time, many people stopped before the image even fully formed.
They had learned that Lootwell did not speak without reason.
Lucien's voice spread across the five continents.
"I will not ask the world to bleed against a shadow."
The first sentence silenced many arguments before they began.
Lucien raised one hand.
