Her back arched off the cold console edge, spine curving like a bow drawn too hard, and the hundred screens caught her reflection in every angle — sweat-soaked, open-mouthed, her iron-colored eyes rolled half-back with tears cutting clean lines down her cheeks.
The Diamond Body cultivation surging through her veins turned every nerve ending into a live wire.
What should have been pain alone was something else entirely — something her mind didn't have a file for yet, something that kept arriving in waves she couldn't brace for no matter how many times she told herself to brace.
Pah! Pah! Pah!
"HNNGK~!! Aahngh~!! FUUUUCK—~~!!"
Her fist slammed the console surface beside her hip — not to stop him, her mind registered distantly, just to hit something, just to give her hand somewhere to put the current running through her.
The metal left a red mark across her knuckles.
She didn't notice.
He watched her face.
