I forced my eyes closed, blocking out the arena and Seraphiel and everything else.
My senses spiked to maximum intensity as I turned my awareness inward, diving into my own body with desperate urgency.
I needed to understand what was happening before it killed me.
My divine core pulsed irregularly, energy flowing in stuttering bursts.
My chaos energy, the power that sustained my existence, was moving wrong, circulating backward through channels that weren't designed for reverse flow.
And beneath it all, I felt...
WHOOOOSH!
My body reacted on pure instinct.
I shifted right without opening my eyes, my heightened senses tracking the displacement of air as Seraphiel's fist came screaming toward where my head had been a fraction of a second ago.
Her knuckles passed within millimeters of my face, close enough that I felt the heat from the holy light coating them.
My eyes snapped open.
