Sirius understood the two new artifacts in a fraction of a second...
Two blockades, no anchoring claws. Without the mechanical friction of talons gripping the stone, they couldn't create the immovable bottleneck the four massive arms had formed in the narrow stairwell below.
The kinetic force required to dislodge them wasn't remotely the same as the impossible one down there.
Sirius could push them.
But Selthia's strategy didn't rely solely on a physically weak barricade.
A suffocating shockwave of corruption blasted through the corridor before either man, older or younger, could brace themselves. It was the same hyper-condensed, explosive pulse she had used to violently drop Sirius to his knees in the chamber below.
But this time, Ren's lingering golden energy flared to life again.
