The distortion didn't slow.
It didn't hesitate.
It didn't adjust.
It closed the distance like it had already decided how this would end.
Cairis moved first.
Crimson energy surged violently from him, not in a wide release but condensed, sharpened into something precise and lethal. He stepped into its path without hesitation, meeting the distortion head-on, his power colliding against its unstable form with enough force to split the air.
For a fraction of a second—
It worked.
The distortion faltered, its shifting shape tearing apart at the edges as his attack cut through it.
But then—
It reformed.
Faster.
Stronger.
Like it had learned.
Liora felt it.
That shift.
That correction.
Her breath hitched as the silver light around her surged again, reacting instinctively to the danger. It wasn't controlled. It wasn't measured. It was responding—to the distortion, to the instability of the Deep Border, to something deeper that had begun to wake inside her.
"…No—"
