The air went dead silent as Roshhide's hand struck.
Erin Volter squeezed her eyes shut, her jaw locking as she gritted her teeth so hard her gums ached. She braced every muscle in her body for the terminal impact. She knew what a Calamity Lord's physical strike did to human flesh; she had read hundreds of autopsy reports from gate incidents over her twenty-year career. She expected a sharp, sickening crunch of bone, the tearing of her lungs, and an agonizing spike of white-hot pain before dark oblivion claimed her.
In that single microsecond where time seemed to stretch into eternity, a crushing wave of profound sadness, raw anger, and utter hopelessness flooded her mind.
'So this is how it ends...' Erin thought bitterly, her spirit breaking under the weight of her own choices. 'I came across the threshold seeking answers, only to die on the grass like an idiot. It's all my fault... everything that happened, everything I lost, it's all because of my own foolishness.'
