"You wouldn't wanna move~"
The voice was sweet, too sweet, like honey with poison.
"!"
Hei Lian froze.
Swooshhhh... Her flames dimmed, instinctively recoiling as if they, too, felt the danger. Slowly, she turned her eyes, and what she saw made her blood run cold.
Behind her, a portal had opened silently, unnoticed amidst the chaos. A hand—no, not a hand, something wrong, something twisted and black as sin—emerged from the void. Mist-like cold fingers stretched toward her, brushing against her neck.
Her flames roared, trying to burn it away, but the hand didn't flinch. It ignored her fire entirely, as if it wasn't even playing by the same rules of existence.
Hei Lian's throat tightened. She couldn't move, couldn't think. Her eyes darted to the woman standing in front of her—Athene, her cold gaze—and to the glowing swords hovering like a storm, waiting to fall.
And then, behind her, that voice again, soft and mocking:
