The System didn't answer immediately. It didn't need to. The silence stretched, pressing down on him like a heavy weight.
Kain swallowed hard, but it did nothing to ease the tightness in his chest. His mind flashed back—Serena's wary eyes, Malzahir's barely concealed fear, the suffocating hunger that had clawed at his sanity.
The way his own hands had trembled afterward, still aching with the desire to clutch something, anything whether that be a fragment or a person, and drain it completely.
And now, the System expected him to consume even more of that energy? En masse?
Kain clenched his jaw, willing himself to breathe through the rising panic.
The System continued, voice maddeningly neutral. *If it helps, your body and Pangea are now far better suited for the process. Your previous… let's call it 'incident'… was due to improper regulation. But now, with the integration of the Star Space, absorption should be—*
