For three tenths of a split second, the universe froze in a state of total, crystal-clear total numbness.
The incoming star-iron harpoon hung suspended in mid-air forty paces from Lin Tao’s left ear. The screaming vortex of azure lightning around its barbed head was frozen into static, glowing filaments of light, sharp and brittle as spun glass. The air around the projectile ceased to ripple with blast waves. It looked like a painted canvas depicting a weapon of war caught between brushstrokes.
Behind the harpoon, the three royal war skiffs hovered motionless in the gray sky.
The trial headsman stood with his golden sword raised, his mouth open in mid-shout. His silver armor reflected the frozen glare of the giant crossbow flash. The clouds above had ceased to drift. The wind had ceased to blow.
The midnight exact timing had taken command of the world engine.
In that frozen slice of time, the world was laid bare as a static, unmoving sculpture. The azure lightning streaming from the harpoon’s barbed head didn’t crackle or hiss. It stood motionless like jagged blue crystal branches frozen in an ice pond. A single fleck of gray shale, dislodged by the giant crossbow’s sonic boom, hung suspended two inches before Lin Tao’s nose, its tiny crystal facets catching the pale green glare of his sight aiming cross.
