Following that brief, terrifying silence, the oppressive darkness of the world was violently pushed away by an intense, blinding light. The flash came first, turning the night into an artificial, searing day.
An earth-shattering roar followed a split second later, a sound so loud it vibrated through his very teeth, and lastly came the devastating wave of pure heat. William was running as fast as he physically could, but in the end, his degraded, upper-realm-weakened body simply didn't run fast enough to outpace the expanding shockwave that surged at the tail end of the blast.
He felt his body suddenly getting scooped up and pushed forward by an irresistible, invisible force. A microsecond later, an immense, searing pain assaulted his back. He didn't even need to stop or check his injuries to know that the flesh on his back had been severely scorched and incinerated by the heatwave.
