His trembling hand touched the cold, runed steel.
A jolt, colder than ice, more potent than any electrical shock, shot up Fin's arm, slamming into his chest. The Mark of Dominance flared, an agonized, searing supernova of red-black energy. His vision whited out. He heard a distant roaring, like a storm trapped inside his own skull, and the distinct, horrifying sensation of his domain tearing.
'No… stop… it's too much…' a part of his mind screamed.
But another, colder, more resolute part, fueled by guilt and a desperate, stubborn refusal to fail Mara, pushed back. He gritted his teeth, blood trickling from his bitten lip, and pulled. Not with his physical strength, but with the very essence of his will, his dominion, his fractured power.
He poured everything he had left into the Mark, into the connection with the Abyssal Lock.
