The condensed explosion accelerated the already quick expansion of the dark smoke. There was too much of it for it to remain in such a limited space, pushing it outward, taking over an increasingly wider area.
The encirclement had been quite close to Liam, so the dark smoke engulfed it in no time. Among the five, only Cecilia had the reflexes and speed necessary to react to it.
Liam's sudden gesture had also alerted Cecilia, making her shoot backward, not forgetting to grab her Junior Brother's collar along the way.
The smoke expanded farther than Cecilia had predicted, forcing her to retreat even further, dragging her Junior Brother with her. However, the more the cloud spread, the more rapidly it dispersed, soon vanishing to reveal what had unfolded inside it.
The red water touched by the smoke had gained dark-green tones, even featuring bubbles that burst to leak some leftovers of those dark fumes.
