The first pushback was like trying to turn the axis of an entire world with bare hands.
Under the combined strain of Lin Xiao’s four ancient arms and Tie Shan’s titan bear strength, the thirty-foot box-shaped shank of the Titan Star-Iron Pipe Wrench bowed slightly, groaning with a sharp, ringing whine that pierced the cosmic void. The iron-hard metal teeth bit deeper into the dark star-iron spindle, biting through the ancient royal gilding until bare, raw star-fallen metal screeched against metal.
Tie Shan’s heavy leather boots slid backward half an inch across the sun-gold plating, throwing up a spray of yellow friction sparks. His meteor-iron right arm glowed blinding cherry-red, the fiery forge-veins pulsing with white-hot pressure as thick plumes of aromatic coal smoke vented from his shoulder seams.
“GRAAAAGH!” Tie Shan roared, his neck cords bulging like thick hemp cables beneath his brown fur. “This bastard is stubborn, Boss! It feels like the entire Third Heaven is sitting on the threads!”
“That’s because it’s sitting on them, Tie Shan!” Lin Xiao replied through the telepathic bond, his voice remarkably steady despite the impossible to understand load. “Two million sea-weights of hoarded sky nectar are trying to keep this door shut! But a bolt is still just a bolt! Dao Spirit, divert thirty percent of our Primordial Chaos reserve into the shoulder fibers!”
