The gap between us closed almost instantly, but my perception had stretched so far that the world crawled. The raindrops hanging in the air weren't water any more. They were obstacles, frozen in place, and I threaded between them.
I wasn't holding a sword. I was holding a dying star.
Valeria was screaming.
It wasn't wind across an edge. It wasn't a metaphor. The bone of her body was vibrating so fast it made a thin, piercing shriek that cut through the thunder of the storm. I had built her years ago in the Ebony Tower out of three things that should never have agreed to share a shape: nine-star Abyssal Emperor bone, the essence of a Void Beast, and the bottled lightning of a Storm Titan. Now I was pushing the Tenth Circle, the Grey and a Demon Overlord's blood through all three at once, and all three were coming apart.
I was forcing the idea of Nothing into a thing made of Something.
