The channel fell into a silence so profound it felt heavy, a vacuum of sound that seemed to suck the very oxygen from the clearing. For two agonizing seconds, the only sound was the wet, ragged breathing of Ignivara and the distant, haunting groan of settling ruins.
"You... are the one who killed Kregg," Celestina said.
Her voice wasn't filled with the rage of a grieving leader or the shock of a soldier; it was flat. It was the chilling, clinical register Zane had described in his reports, the sound of a high-functioning intellect processing a terrifying new variable with lightning speed, refusing to let the mask of confusion slip until the data was absolute.
"I am," Rex replied.
He didn't boast. He didn't gloat.
He simply stated it as one might state the weather, as if the slaughter of a legendary warrior were nothing more than a minor logistical achievement.
"The Lustful Villain," she whispered, the name tasting like poison on the transmission.
