Book 5: Chapter 21 — Resistance and Reunion
Fighting against Stability and Dissonance were nothing like fighting against Terror or Paralysis. Either could be sidestepped on its own but both together were incredibly good at locking him down.
He couldn’t deny that forcing his way to upgrading his resistances would be helpful, but that didn’t make the process any less unpleasant.
Stability countered his astral abilities, forced his physical form to remain in place and denied him access to alternate dimensions. Resistance felt like slamming his soul against an immobile wall with increasing force, with no indication of progress apart from how inwardly battered he felt as the hours dragged on.
Dissonance trapped his spirit abilities inside his body, kept him from accessing his enemies’ life force and prevented his spectres from splitting out from himself. Though in practice it was very similar to Stability in what it did to his powerset, it felt entirely different. Where Stability was a wall of impenetrable force, Dissonance was a wall of blades and mirrors that shredded his spirit whenever he tried to push beyond it.
He did his best to alternate between them, but his spirit naturally flinched away from the attempt whenever he switched to Dissonance. While Stability was more of a blunt force kind of affliction, Dissonance fought back. It would be easier to convince himself to hug a blade-cactus.
By the time he got his first new resistance, the effort left him feeling overstrained and exhausted in a way he hadn’t felt since his body was first remade back in the early days of his new life on Erandir.
You’ve gained the skill [Stability Resistance]!
He tried to open his storage vault, which started a round of intense pressure between his new resistance and the affliction, but he’d been throwing himself against it for hours.
[Stability Resistance] has reached level 2.