The next impact was silent.
It was absent.
For a single instant, the entire labyrinth… fell silent. Not because the noise ceased, but because something deeper took its place—an absolute suppression, as if reality itself were being compressed to make room for what was about to happen.
And then—
Movement.
Shiva appeared first.
Not in displacement.
In presence.
He didn't traverse space—he simply was there, before Alice, his body already rotating, his hips aligned, his arm pulled back in a perfect mechanical force generation.
The blow came.
But it wasn't just a blow.
It was the execution of a principle.
Destruction condensed into technique.
Alice saw.
And, for the first time…
She didn't just analyze.
She reproduced.
