The Matriarch's voice dropped, shedding its childlike lilt. "You control the domain. But the domain is still space. And space can be divided."
She deployed Twilight Weave in a configuration Northern had never seen—not a web, but a structure. A framework that subdivided the chamber into smaller cells, each one isolated from the domain's direct influence.
Maw'Thoraxis tried to reshape the terrain. The bone floor wouldn't respond—the webs choked its connection to the domain.
For ten seconds, it was just physical combat. No domain powers. No reality warping.
The Matriarch held her own. Barely. Her paradox-state activated—existing as frost and shadow simultaneously. Maw'Thoraxis's adaptive armor struggled to counter contradictory damage types applied at once.
Then Maw'Thoraxis roared.
The sound shattered the web structure. The sonic blast ruptured the Matriarch's internal organs, destabilized her paradox-state, forced her frost and shadow halves to reject each other violently.
