The Judge came forward. Fire reached out ahead of its body and spread across the stone between them. By the time Pei Jing’s fist left his hip, there were four feet between his hand and the heart of the flame.
The rock held under his heel. Force traveled from the mountain through his leg and up his spine. He let his breath go in a short hiss. The air ahead of his fist turned white as it gathered against his knuckles.
Then he struck.
The sound was low enough to shake stone before it reached his ears. For a fraction of a second, his hand and the dark core inside the Judge held against each other. The fire was bright all around them. At the point of contact, Pei Jing could see a narrow band of gold that went on turning.
He felt the pull from inside it. The core wanted to take the force of his blow and send it into the same runes that held the stellar body together. His Chaos Root sent all five phases in at once. The band shivered. It slipped a little out of line, drew back, and slipped farther.
The core tilted. The lines holding the fire broke with a sound like iron cables coming apart. A flake of gold from the cage’s retaining band turned in the flame and vanished.
