(The Time-Stilled World, Corridor Outside the Altar Room, Leo's POV)
'Just twenty more meters—'
Leo gritted his teeth as he triggered [Stormflash Traverse] one final time, hurling himself forward with everything he had left.
His muscles screamed in protest, each fiber tearing at the seams, while his lungs struggled to draw in even a sliver of air, as though the atmosphere itself had thickened into tar.
Every nerve in his body burned—not just from the physical pain, but from the invisible weight pressing down on him, from the suffocating presence of death that lurked behind him, reaching closer with every heartbeat, with every flicker of hesitation he couldn't afford.
He didn't dare look back.
Didn't dare flinch.
Didn't even breathe.
Because he knew—
Hesitation meant death, and every microsecond mattered now.
