The air in the plaza didn't just feel heavy; it felt thick, like breathing liquid lead. The tension was a physical cord stretched so tight it threatened to snap the very reality of the space around them.
Rex didn't even move his feet. He simply raised his right hand, his fingers curling as if grasping the throat of the world itself.
"Gravity," he commanded.
The effect was instantaneous and brutal. The gravity field didn't just increase; it slammed into Calivara like a falling mountain.
The force quadrupled, a crushing weight that demanded every ounce of her will to resist. She didn't fly back; she was driven down.
Her knees hit the cracked stone with a sound like a hammer striking an anvil, the impact sending a shockwave of dust through the air. She went to her knees with the practiced, grim precision of a veteran, her body instinctively bracing for the load she knew was coming.
