Darkness swallowed the space except for the faint glow from the shrinking tear and the fractured shimmer radiating from the entity.
Cain steadied his breathing, eyes adjusting to the dim.
The entity paused.
Evaluated.
Raised its arm once more.
Cain's pulse climbed.
Rhea pressed her back to his. "We can't hurt it. We can't touch it. We can't block it."
"Yeah."
"What do we do?"
Cain lowered his stance.
"We outmaneuver a thing that doesn't obey physics."
"That's not a plan."
"It's the only one."
The entity struck.
Reality bent.
And Cain ran straight toward it.
Cain woke to a pressure behind his eyes—an ache like someone had pressed a thumb directly into his mind. The world around him was dim, blurred, soaked in a gray half-light that had no source. He wasn't lying on stone, or soil, or even air. The ground beneath him felt like the suggestion of a surface—an idea of weight rather than the thing itself.
He pushed himself upright. The air trembled.
