The cold kept spreading from Noah.
It was no longer a chaotic outburst or a panic-driven reaction like before. Now it moved with intent, claiming the courtyard stone by stone, slipping between fallen bodies, climbing over broken steps, thickening the air around the defensive line. The smoke from the battle began to slow, as if even the chaos itself was being forced to settle.
In front of him, another wave of magical weapons fire cut across the courtyard.
Luc barely managed to raise another barrier.
The blue structure burst into existence, absorbing the impact in a violent tremor that ran across its entire surface. This time, there was no stability. The barrier held, but a glowing crack split it from side to side.
Luc clenched his teeth.
"I won't be able to hold another like this," he said, his voice strained.
Étienne, covered in both his own blood and that of others, did not take his eyes off the front.
"Then keep that one alive long enough."
A group of attackers tried to exploit the crack to break the formation. They pushed forward along the right side of the courtyard, using smoke and bodies as cover.
They didn't get far.
Eleonor intercepted them first.
Her movements no longer had the clean speed from minutes before, but they were still lethal. The first spear pierced the man in front. The second failed to fully form—unstable, incomplete—and still tore open the chest of the next. A third tried to fire at close range. Eleonor turned too late.
The blast grazed her wounded side.
The impact forced her back two steps.
Noah felt it as if the strike had passed through his own body.
Eleonor lowered her shoulder slightly, breathing hard.
Blood ran down her arm, dripping from her fingertips.
Even so, she raised her gaze.
"Is that all?" she growled.
And stepped back in.
Noah moved forward.
One step.
Then another.
The air around him dropped several more degrees. The stone beneath his feet cracked. Thin lines of frost began rising from the ground, spreading in multiple directions—seeking ankles, weapons, points of balance. He was no longer improvising.
He was reading the battlefield.
An attacker appeared from the left and aimed directly at Sophie.
Noah extended his hand without even looking.
A wall of ice formed diagonally, deflecting the shot, and in the same motion sealed around the man's legs. The attacker fell. Before he could break free, the ice climbed to his chest and locked him in place.
Sophie looked at him for barely a second.
There was no surprise in her face.
Only a quick, cold understanding.
"Noah, they're regrouping at the main entrance," she said. "They're not improvising the pressure. They're waiting for something."
Étienne had just taken down another attacker when he heard that.
"Waiting for what?"
The answer came on its own.
Everyone felt it.
It wasn't an explosion.
It wasn't an impact.
It was a vibration.
Deep.
Brief.
But strong enough to pass through the ground, the walls, and the chest of everyone carrying a mark.
Noah froze.
The ice around him halted for a moment.
Eleonor felt it too. She turned toward the main entrance just as the advancing attackers began to fall back. They weren't fleeing.
They were clearing space.
"I don't like this," Luc muttered.
Sophie checked her readings. The screen on her wrist flickered once… then went dead.
"There's a magical distortion at the main access point," she said. "I can't read it."
Then the air split.
Not like a door. Not like a clean portal.
It was an irregular rupture, a dark tear ripping open space just behind the enemy's front line. The courtyard stones vibrated. Several magical weapons dimmed for a second. Even the sea in the distance seemed to fall silent.
A figure stepped out of the tear.
Human.
Tall.
Dressed in black.
No combat suit from any family. No visible insignia of the Águila faction.
He walked without urgency, as if he weren't entering a battlefield, but a room where everyone had been waiting for him.
His presence shifted the pressure of the place immediately.
Étienne adjusted his stance.
Luc forgot his barrier for a second.
Sophie stopped looking at her screen.
And Noah…
Noah felt the energy of the mark tighten inside him.
As if it recognized something.
As if it hated something.
The figure took another step.
His voice was calm.
"That's enough."
The attackers stopped firing.
The courtyard fell into a brutal silence, broken only by heavy breathing, the crackling of ice, and blood dripping onto stone.
Eleonor wiped the blood from her arm with the back of her hand.
"And who the hell are you?"
The man looked at her without expression.
"Someone who came to confirm a hypothesis."
Noah stared at him.
There was something about him that felt unbearable, though he couldn't explain why. It wasn't just hostility. It was older. Deeper. As if something buried inside him reacted before his own mind could.
The man turned his gaze toward Noah.
And gave a faint smile.
"So you've already begun."
Eleonor stepped forward, placing herself slightly in front of Noah despite the tremor running through her injured arm.
"You're not getting near him."
The man's expression didn't change.
"I didn't come to take him."
A pause.
"Not yet."
Étienne raised his weapon.
"Take one more step and I'll put you down."
"No," the man replied calmly. "You won't."
His energy released in that instant.
It didn't explode outward.
It dropped over the courtyard.
Like pressure.
Like the air suddenly became heavier.
Luc fell to his knees first. His barrier shattered into fragments of light. Two guards lost their footing. Sophie braced herself against the wall. Even Étienne had to stabilize his stance.
Eleonor did not step back.
But her breathing broke.
Noah was the only one who remained fully upright.
The man noticed.
"Yes," he murmured. "That's exactly what I wanted to see."