The rage that coursed through him was a cold, cosmic fire, far hotter than any mere emotion. It was the fury of a man who had stared into the abyss and found a part of himself staring back, a being who had just been reminded of his own insignificance and had decided, defiantly, to become significant once more.
The safety of this world, the rules of engagement, the delicate balance of cause and effect... they were all meaningless abstractions against the visceral reality of Lilla's injuries and the audacity of the pirates who had caused them.
And as it turned out, the entity commanding his hidden fleet felt exactly the same way.
The air above the crystallized plain did not tear; it screamed. Reality itself was forced apart, not with a gentle folding of space, but with a violent, arrogant rip. A wormhole of impossible scale erupted into being, its event horizon a maelstrom of silver and violet energy that dwarfed the pirate armada.
