Not quiet, silent.
Complete absence of sound, as if the concept of noise had been temporarily erased.
The void swallowed everything it touched, and Jaenor felt his shields being eaten away layer by layer.
He poured more power into them, drawing from reserves he hadn't known he possessed. The merged energy flowed like a river, responding to his desperate need with quantities that should have been impossible.
His shields held.
Barely.
When the void finally receded, when sound returned to the world, Jaenor stood in the center of a perfectly circular crater fifty feet across. Everything that had been there, grass, soil, even rocks buried deep, was simply gone.
Erased at the fundamental level.
His companions were safe, protected within his shields.
But he was gasping for breath, his merged power depleted to dangerous levels.
