In that blink, the Awakenener jumps — not subtle — and seizes control of Steve’s body. Steve collapses, eyes glassing over. He speaks in a voice that is not his:
Steve (hollow, Awakenener’s voice): “Free… free… release me.”
Before anyone can react fully, the Awakenener forces Steve into a nosedive toward Blobie, smashing into the constrained body with calculated force and shattering the ropes of psychic and rune restraint. Wherever the Awakener moves, containment fails: the ritual links unravel like thread.
People scream and rush. Cassie screams Cassie’s strongest command and scrambles, but it’s too late — the Awakenener leaps back into Blobie’s body seconds later and, in a single monstrous motion, flicks Steve with inhuman force. Steve is sent skyward — up, up — a moment of weightless horror, then there is a distant detonation. The sound is enormous and the earth stumbles under it. The sky darkens where Steve was sent. There is no graphic detail, only the awful silence that follows such a destructive blast.
The field goes white with dust.
People kneel, some vomit, many wail. Kaibi collapses, spent, psychic tremors coursing off him. Cassie is shaking — she nearly saved Gayery and nearly lost herself in the attempt. Junkil is dead where he blocked the blade for a moment of heroism that ended him.
Virian (screaming, collapsing): “JUNKIL NO! NO—YOU STOOD—YOU FOOL—”
Spamton (shouting, broken): “[[RETURN!]]—FREE—NO DEAL—PLEASE—NOT HIM—”
Kaibi (hoarse): “He saved a life. And… he paid the price.” He holds Wembry steady.
In the stunned silence, something absurd and sudden happens: 17M lb Marijuana Brick — the giant sentient block of weed that somehow remains in the world — races onto the scene. In a moment of pure, animal fury, it scrambles over to Blobie’s pinned mass and launches itself headlong onto Blobie, crushing down. The result is ludicrous: the Brick’s overwhelming weight and some mysterious biochemical effect cause both Blobie and the Awakener to go slack, high and unconscious, as if the weed put them both into a trance.
Everyone stares.
Caring Individual (breathless): “What… what just—”
Gayery (fading): “I… I might have… been affected by the odor… but he’s still breathing.”
Mewo, floating back into view, watches with an odd, small smile and then snaps his fingers. A shimmering force field — a translucent dome — rises from the ground around the island’s perimeter.