The moment Liora's power collided with the collapsing space around Cairis, the Deep Border seemed to hesitate—as if two opposing truths had struck each other at once. The force attempting to erase him pressed inward with quiet inevitability, compressing reality around his form, while her silver light surged outward, raw and defiant, forcing space itself to hold.
For a single, fragile instant—
Neither side won.
Cairis felt it.
Not pain.
Not impact.
Absence.
It crept along his body like something undoing him piece by piece, not tearing, not breaking—but removing. The space where he stood no longer felt anchored, no longer felt real, as though he had stepped into a place that had already decided he did not belong.
And yet—
Something held.
"…Liora."
His voice came strained for the first time, lower than before, as if even sound resisted forming around him.
Liora didn't answer.
She couldn't.
Because everything she had was focused on one thing.
Holding him there.
