And then Richard did something that Satou had never seen before, something that made even his combat-hardened instincts scream danger.
Time itself went haywire in a twenty-foot radius around Richard's position.
Not slowed. Not accelerated. Haywire. Completely broken.
Cause preceded effect—fires burned before the sparks that ignited them, objects broke before the impacts that damaged them.
Moments happened out of sequence—Satou could see after-images of Richard's attacks land before the actual attacks were thrown, could watch effects occur before their causes.
Past, present, and future bled together—the library existed in multiple states simultaneously, showing as it was now, as it had been hours ago, as it would be after total collapse.
Reality became optional—the normal rules of physics hesitated, paused, struggled to maintain coherence in the face of temporal chaos that made causality itself uncertain.
