The ridge didn’t just shake.
It groaned.
As if the land itself could feel the strain of what Aria was forcing through it.
Every thread of the bond every fracture, every corrupted pulse was being dragged into one point. Not gently. Not naturally.
But deliberately.
And systems like that they didn’t bend.
They broke.
Aria’s knees threatened to give as the pressure surged back against her, twice as strong now that both fractures were resisting together.
Her breath came uneven.
“I’ve got them” she forced out, her voice strained. “But not for long!”
Lucian didn’t hesitate.
“Then we end it now.”
He moved with precision, not speed alone each step calculated, each strike aligned with the moment Aria forced the fractures to overlap.
The two creatures reacted violently.
Their movements,
