The impact was like striking stone.
A crushing force slammed against his entire body as he pierced through the lake's surface, the icy water swallowing him whole. His muscles tensed, his breath punched from his lungs.
Cold.
The kind that seeped into the bones, that made the body feel sluggish, slow.
Had he been anyone else, bones would have snapped, ribs would have caved. But Aziz was not anyone else.
His body, tempered by years of consuming the flesh and blood of Black-Deaths, held firm. He plunged deep, the force of the fall dragging him into the lake's depths. The world turned silent, the water pressing against him like an unshakable weight.
Then, he moved.
