(Meanwhile within the Dimensional Tunnel, Leo's POV)
While Soron fought Helmuth tooth and nail on The Pit, Leo moved forward through the Dimensional Tunnel step by step, or at least that was what he believed he was doing, because somewhere along the way, as the pressure compounded and the ancient aura continued to crush down on him without mercy, the certainty of motion itself began to slip from his grasp.
The closer he felt himself drawing to the exit vector, the more his body seemed to betray him, not all at once, but in fragments, as muscles stopped responding in proper sequence, as joints moved a fraction too late or too early, and as the steady rhythm he had forced upon his breathing slowly unraveled into something shallow and unreliable, each breath feeling less like a conscious act and more like a reflex struggling to survive.
His vision was no longer a trustworthy thing.
