Time fractured. The world became a series of staggered, stuttering images. Roewi’s breath froze in his lungs, half-drawn. The dust motes hung in the air, immutable as diamonds. Myra’s warning shout was stretched into a deep, distorted drone. Ereun had not just slowed time; he had pinned Roewi in a localized temporal singularity, a bubble of frozen instants where only he could move freely.
[Temporal stasis field detected. The Aethelburg Protocol is a recursive chronometric lock. Conventional resistance is impossible. Our neural processes are also affected.] Vextor’s analysis was strained, the data-stream sluggish. For the first time, it sounded… concerned.
Ereun walked forward, his movements smooth and fluid in the congealed time. His eyes were hollow, the price of the new power etched in
