Too slow. Too close. Too damaged. Too late.
The blade thrust forward.
"EXISTENCE ERASURE!"
A cylinder of flesh, bone, and organs eight inches in diameter running completely through Richard's torso simply ceased to exist.
Not cut. Not burned. Not destroyed. Not damaged.
Erased. Removed from reality itself. The matter didn't go anywhere—it simply stopped being, stopped existing, left behind a perfect void with edges so clean they looked polished.
The wound went through Richard's chest from front to back, visible from both sides, creating a tunnel of non-existence where vital structures should have been. Heart gone. Left lung gone. Part of the spine gone. Major blood vessels gone.
All simply erased.
Richard's eyes widened—all his glitching versions showing the same expression of shock and horror and disbelief simultaneously.
His temporal echoes collapsed, hundreds of duplicates dissipating in an instant as his concentration failed completely.
