Ethan's thirty minutes of borrowed supremacy came to an abrupt end, and the paralysis came with merciless precision. It was not a gradual weakening, nor a fading exhaustion. It struck like a law being enforced, absolute and irreversible within its bounds.
No healing could mend this condition. That was the ultimate cost, the hidden edge of that terrifying talent. Power beyond reason, followed by a state beyond recovery.
Null frowned, his expression tightening as confusion overtook him. He could not immediately understand what had happened. One moment Ethan had stood like an unshakable pillar, and the next he had collapsed into immobility.
His thoughts sharpened instantly. Someone must have interfered.
A surge of anger rose within him, immense and suffocating, pressing outward like a storm seeking release. Yet there was no target. No presence. No disturbance in the flow of the world that he could trace back to an enemy.
