The air collapsed inward.
For a fraction of a second, there was no sound. No rain. No battlefield. No roaring Troll King. No screaming hunters.
Only pressure.
And in that crushing stillness, something inside Jagger answered.
"Corrupted Surge."
The words did not leave his mouth as a shout. They left him as a decision.
It ignited, not as heat, but as corruption.
A violent pulse detonated from somewhere deep in his spine, racing through nerve pathways and muscle fibers like black lightning. His heart slammed once, twice, then began beating with brutal force. His vision sharpened to razor clarity. Every raindrop suspended in the air became visible. Every tremor in Yuki's fingers, every micro-adjustment in her shoulders, every subtle gathering of compression at her palm burned into his awareness.
Pain dulled at the edges.
Not gone.
Just distant.
Time stretched.
Then it detonated.
