The air split apart, not with a sound but with the absence of it—a vacuum of nothingness that pulled at Reed's consciousness as reality folded inward upon itself. Before him, the three Watchers shed their mortal guises like snakes shedding skin, except what emerged wasn't flesh but mathematical impossibility given form.
They towered beyond physical dimension, their true shapes defying comprehension. One appeared as a lattice of burning geometric patterns that constantly rearranged themselves, another as a void filled with countless eyes that seemed to observe every possible timeline simultaneously, and the third as a crystalline structure that phased between states of matter with each passing second.
"They were never meant to be perceived directly," Shia whispered, blood trickling from her ears. "Even looking at them is destroying our minds."
