In the spacious and bright office, Corvey, his hair and beard both snow-white, watched the elderly man who had just stopped speaking.
The live broadcast froze on that final moment, when the elder's gaze drifted past the screen, voicing a loud, urgent call.
On that weathered face, there was no fear, no hesitation, only composure and determination in the face of that terrifying and brutal enemy.
Everyone in the office fell silent at that moment, as quiet as the city that had calmed outside the window.
From Saint Yilan to Nevus, from the Mayor's Mansion to the Low-rise District, an eerie and dim silence covered the ancient city at this moment.
The tens of thousands seemed all to fall silent at this time. They stood before the giant billboards, hunched over the aged wristbands, watching the elder in the screen's last moments, seeing the composure and determination that seemed to infect the soul.
