It started as a pulse.
A micro-release he couldn't catch.
Small. Almost insignificant.
Except…
It landed on her chest like a wave of iron.
Her lungs tightened, ribs ached, heartbeat pounding against her chest.
Every breath came with resistance. Every pulse from him pressed like chains, invisible but unyielding.
He exhaled sharply, jaw tight, eyes flickering with tension.
Hands twitching involuntarily. Shoulders coiled. The cage—his masterpiece—was beginning to strain from within, uncontrollable micro-fractures spreading faster than he could reroute.
She pressed a hand to her chest. The inversion pressed heavy, relentless, every micro-slip magnified.
She staggered slightly, focusing on the smallest flickers in the bond, on every tremor running through him.
"You're losing it," she whispered, voice trembling with awareness.
"Not… yet," he said, clipped, voice tight, but the internal strain betrayed him.
Another micro-release escaped containment. Another pulse slammed into her chest.
The system leaned in. Subtle, invisible, merciless:
Gravity fluctuating unpredictably
Air density shifting in pockets
Temperature spiking and dipping randomly
Light warping, flickering
Everything engineered to push the anomaly to its edge, to see how much the cage could withstand before failing entirely.
He staggered slightly. Tiny, almost imperceptible.
But she felt the strain spike in her chest, lungs tightening painfully.
The inversion landed full force, sharper than ever.
He hissed quietly, teeth gritted, fists curling, jaw locking.
Micro-losses repeated in quick succession, each harder to catch, each pulse pressing directly onto her.
She could feel the internal collapse of his cage through the bond, weight and pressure unrelenting.
Her chest burned, lungs straining.
Every micro-slip hammered her body, every tremor tested her endurance.
She swallowed, determination flaring. She would survive this, no matter how heavy the inversion landed.
The cage was failing from the inside.
The first true breach was forming.
The system observed silently, calculating, waiting for the moment the anomaly would break under stress.
She realized the truth:
When the cage finally shattered, she would feel every fragment of it.
Her fingers curled into fists, resolve hardening.
Because when it came… she would endure.
And the system would not allow failure—not for him, not for her.