The claw never reached me.
One second it was coming down, sharp enough to split me in half. The next, everything just… stopped. The air turned heavy, pressing down on my chest like a boulder. Even my own heartbeat stuttered, caught in that suffocating weight.
The Coil beast froze mid-swipe, its arm shaking as though something stronger was holding it back.
I could still hear the battlefield, but muffled—like sound itself had been swallowed. Soldiers collapsed around me, gasping for breath. The Coils howled, thrashing as if they were burning from the inside out.
I couldn’t move. None of us could.
Then the sky split.
Black cracks tore across the clouds, thin at first, then spreading like veins. No light came from them—only a colorless fire that drained the world into dull shades.
And t
