Brad roared, and this time something answered.
The sound tore out of his ruined throat raw enough to scrape blood from somewhere deep inside, but the roar itself seemed to carry something more than sound.
His will slammed into the Dominion wrapped around the hammer, punched through the pressure that had been grinding him down for days, and sank into the weapon itself. For the first time since Brad had touched it, the hammer stopped trying to change him.
Grey felt it happen.
The Dominion crushing down around his Quasi Dominion trembled, then cracked. At first it was only a thin fracture, something Grey almost mistook for his own Last Paladin Spirit finally gaining ground, but then the entire thing shattered at once. The Relentless' will broke apart like old glass, the pressure vanished from Grey's shoulders, and the white-gold threads around him snapped outward as his Quasi Dominion suddenly had nothing left to fight.
"Holy shit."
