Time froze for Zhor. Everything around him became a blur, and he could feel nothing but the weight of despair bearing down upon him. He clasped his wife's dead body in his arms, her blood on his hands. Her last moments kept replaying themselves in his mind, every second an eternity.
"Umbra," he breathed, his voice cracking. "You promised… You promised you'd protect them. Where are you?"
As he lay writhing in agony, there came a sudden, earsplitting roar that shook the very foundations of existence. Zhor looked up, his eyes wide with surprise, and then the atmosphere split as if made of thin paper. Out of it came a figure-a woman whose aura was so overpowering that it seemed to demand the attention of the universe in its entirety.
It was Umbra Blade, his manifested weapon, now in human form before him. Her presence was terrifyingly beautiful; her form radiated power. Her eyes burned with fury as she looked around at the gods, tears streaming down her face.