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Their attacks on Dozer were accomplishing very little. Waves crashing against a cliff. A storming mess of ice and metal, mud and liquid, acid and lightning, blades and explosions.

And the Living Void merely took it all, unmoving. His aura was the same, holding strong against theirs, unbothered by their collective heat and scratches.

Then he brought his hands together with a single great clap, and the resulting force was so strong that, for a moment, Sai-hee thought that perhaps he’d torn a hole in reality itself. The shock wave it created blasted the Vanguardians back like leaves caught in a gale. The greater whirlpool around them ripped apart, splashing back to even larger distances and sending tidal waves roaring off into the horizon.

Even Sai-hee herself was made to budge, if only a little. This weightless form was not entirely immune to the shock wave, as he had of course empowered it with his soul.

What a mess.

When she first arrived, she’d been quite pleased to see that they were already within the Void State. It meant that negotiations could be conducted quite easily and leisurely, with virtually no risk to the Vanguardians here.

But apparently, that wasn’t to be. And if she was going to intervene before things got any worse, it would have to be here, she knew. Sanko and Lamont might survive this encounter with Dozer--just as they had many times before--but their subordinates? Those were not going to last much longer, she felt.

So she moved. She put herself in front of Dozer and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Hold, please. Let us resume negotiations, first. This time, with the Vanguardians included.”

Dozer’s wrinkly face merely stared back at her for a moment, unsurprised. He was standing quite steadily on seemingly nothing, though she knew it to be an invisible platform of altered air, created with his power over inertia.

He spared a glance in the direction of Morgunov and Koh, who’d also been knocked away by the shock wave yet had apparently not been deterred from continuing their mid-air brawl. Morgunov seemed to have gotten free of the beast’s mouth, at least, but it still wasn’t clear if he’d gained the upper hand or not.

“Are you not going to stop them?” said Dozer.

“Do you really want me to?” she said.

“...No.”

She could sense some of the Vanguardians approaching from behind and turned to look at them. Thankfully, they seemed to understand that the battle was now on pause. She always hated it when she had to make them listen by force.