The first second lifted a pebble beside Hajin's wrist, and the dust chasing it showed where the core was pulling. Juna's foot skidded along the slab as her hand stayed jammed beneath his shoulder, pinning him against the moving ground.
"Hold him," Loccy gasped, leaning back until the chain went straight between her fists and the compressed chest.
"I'm holding, you hold your end!"
Her Wing snapped open while the ward bent beneath their heels, staff and hammer fighting the ground's hungry pull.
"Master, it won't take much more," Vella warned, her knuckles bloodless around the staff.
"Then I won't give it much more!"
They were holding his chosen line while the ground itself tried to rip it out from under them.
He turned the leading length across his palm while Juna's current slid beneath its route, careful around his destroyed channels. One last divine spark met the chain inside that support, separate from the captured poison burned to join its fragments.
