The roar was not a sound of wind or stone, but the scream of a universe trying to hold its own boundaries. Julian felt his fingers dissolve into white light as they met the dark, swirling entropy of the portal. The agony was absolute, a searing heat that consumed his nerves and replaced them with the cold, crushing density of the Void. He saw Elara, her features twisted in shock, her emerald magic warring against the encroaching grey.
Stop, she screamed, but her voice was a frail vibration against the thundering collapse of space. You will vanish!
Julian did not pull back. He anchored his feet to the buckling floor, letting the memories he had harvested from the archive surge outward through his palms. He channeled every death he had witnessed, every sunrise he had cherished, and every p
