Chapter 106: The Wanderer Who Laughs (6)

The first thing that rang in Celia's mind was simple.

Defeat him.

The words pulsed through her skull like a command seared into her very existence.

And then.. In that moment of confusion...

Agony descended..

It crashed down, all-consuming, formless, boundless. A weight that was not a weight, a burn that was not a burn. A pain beyond mere suffering, something more primal, more absolute.

Her exoskeleton bio-armor pulsed against her skin, iron-touched blue warping under the unseen pressure. The world twisted, reality thinning.

She heard nothing. Not the wind, not her heartbeat.. only the silent, screaming void.

A ripping that wasn't a ripping.

A severing of something deeper than flesh.

It stole breath, voice, thought.