It hit like a tide. Not just weight, but intent.
Ash's instincts screamed to resist the pressure. But nothing came.
His aether core wasn't empty- he could still feel aether, hot and churning within him- but when he tried to send it out of his body, it was like forcing wind through sealed stone. It resisted, bottled and compressed, unable to leave his body.
'What-? My aether- why can't I…?
The realisation hit harder than the pressure itself.
Something was suppressing his flow. Not cutting it off completely, but muting it, like trying to scream through water.
Just then, the beast moved- not with malice but with a look of amusement as if it could tell what Ash was thinking. With a single, explosive, shove, it hurled Ash from where he was initially standing.
He fell like a dropped stone, momentum dragging his limbs into a spiral of disorientation.
