Winnie's face was even paler than before.
She could clearly feel the weakness coming from the source of her Authority. It was not merely a reduction in the total amount of power, but a chill of her very existence being slowly diminished.
What this rift was extracting was the very thing that made up her existence.
Just as Xilos was anxiously thinking about what to do, and Winnie was circulating all her remaining power in an attempt to stabilize her connection to her Authority and resist that invisible pull, a familiar fluctuation of power surfaced around Winnie without the slightest warning.
It was not Winnie's own power, nor was it Xilos's Flame of Continued Combustion.
It was a golden radiance that was older, vaster, carrying an indescribable sense of destiny and weight.
The light was not dazzling. Instead, it seemed warm and restrained, but the layers and essence of power contained within it made Xilos and Winnie instantly turn cold with alarm.
Brilliant golden light flowed and gathered around Winnie, faintly outlining the silhouette of a tall, slender woman.
The way that figure appeared was not by tearing through space and descending. It was more as if a being with higher priority permission, or one allowed by the rules, had directly manifested from the background of this void, from within Winnie's body itself.
The instant that golden light appeared, Xilos reacted as though facing a deadly enemy. Every muscle in her body tensed, and the Flame of Continued Combustion instinctively contracted and condensed, taking on its most vigilant defensive posture.
Because the figure outlined by that golden light, both in silhouette and in the aura she emitted, was unmistakably Mia, whom they had dealt with before!
Only, the power fluctuations lingering around Mia as she appeared now were far stronger