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He went for a ride. The feldeath carried him along as if on the nose of a train. Together, they quickly reached the edge of his emptied sphere of influence and splashed through a towering cliff of seawater.

Dozer’s fingers sunk into the monster’s hulking, ethereal body as he held onto it. The force against his back was even greater than he’d expected, to the point where he could hardly move a muscle as they torpedoed through the Luthic Ocean.

That wasn’t right. This force pinning him down was more than just that of speed and water.

Ah. So this was the power of the Nightspinner’s domain. Its own sphere of influence. Was it trying to absorb him?

It was in for a rude awakening, if so.

The torpedoing soon began to slow, until it was more like crawling, and then it stopped all together. He could feel the beast still pushing against him, thrashing ever more wildly with each passing second, like a great eel that had suddenly discovered the wall of its aquarium.

He was that wall. And he would not budge.

With his own body’s inertia cranked up this high, the feldeath could have been replaced with a rocket ship for all the difference it would have made here.

But Dozer could still move himself, if he wished. It took immense concentration and effort, but he could. That had been one of the most difficult things to master: how to control his body with such precision that, when inertia was maxed out, it would still listen to him.

How to become one with inertia. How to make the world break upon his immovable form without actually becoming immovable himself.

A delicate balance. More about refining mental precision than about summoning new strength. Fragile. Disciplined. Experienced. Tedious, even.

But the payoff had been enormous.

Because when he moved his body in this state, the world could only crumple before him.

With both of his arms spread wide as he gripped the feldeath’s body, Dozer brought his hands together.

And Kallmakk the Nightspinner, this dark serpent of the ocean, combusted like a popped balloon.

There wasn’t nearly enough light to see it with his eyes, but he could certainly sense the change. The oppressive interference over his mind, the blanket of ardor covering everything around him, just had a great hole punched through it, and suddenly, the world was much less murky.