Zeres only saw her smaller frame before him jerk with the impact of the sword as everything in his mind died and his eyes went blank. No!! In his mind, he was already roaring madly and there was that immense pressure to just let loose and howl out his anguish.
"ALICIA… ALICIA… ALICIAAAA…!!!" Her name was reverberating over and over in his mind, overflowing his heart, and causing little electric shocks in each and every cell in his body. However, outwardly, he was frozen as stiff as the thousand-year-old glaciers in the furthest part of the northern poles.
It seemed as though time had stopped. All the summoned demons too had been frozen in their movements and were halted in place as if something had paralyzed them. The spinning and undulating haze around the vortex looked as though it too, just suddenly froze up.