Chapter 27: The World That Trembled, II
The first wave struck like a storm.
Dozens of shikigami surged down the fractured slope—mask after mask gleaming in the distorted light, their bodies moving with the precision of something that had rehearsed this moment for lifetimes.
Rin moved first.
She stepped forward without a word, hands parting in a sharp motion. The small charm at her waist shimmered—and the earth bent.
Not broke. Bent.
The shikigami in front twisted mid-leap, slammed sideways into the ground by pressure that had no shape. A second later, her feet barely touched the thread-laced floor as she pivoted and sent the pressure outward again, folding two more creatures into a heap of crumpled limbs.
Sayo followed, silent and special. She moved like a shadow given purpose, her arms sweeping through the air—and her own shadow moved ahead of her.
It reached out, grew limbs of its own, and pulled a shikigami down before it ever touched her. Her expression didn't change but her shadow opened its jaw, silently, and swallowed the mask whole.
***
It didn't wait.
The thread behind my ribs coiled tight and I stepped through time—not fully, not flawlessly, but just enough to place myself between two advancing figures.