Not "prying."
Prying required tools, leverage, and a fulcrum.
This was "melting."
Like ice melting under extreme heat—changing from solid to liquid, liquid to gas, and gas to nothingness.
After the seal melted, Dark Nether's water-element law became "uncertain."
Its color shifted from deep blue to pale blue, then from pale blue to transparent.
What became transparent was not "water," but "the possibilities of water."
It could become deep blue, pale blue, colorless—any color at all.
It could flow, remain still, evaporate, or freeze solid.
It was everything, and it was nothing.
When Dark Nether walked across the bridge, his footsteps were far lighter than Blood Butcher's.
Not merely "light."
Blood Butcher's steps were "heavy," each one like hammering in a nail.
Dark Nether's steps were "light," as though he were walking on water.
When the soles of his feet touched the bridge, its surface did not sink.
It was not that the bridge failed to react, but that his feet "had no weight."
The water-element law had "diluted" his body weight, like water diluting ink.
Yanji was the fourth to step onto the bridge.
As he passed through the archway, the stripping force surged from the bridge and wrapped around his entire body.
His flame law had fused fifty percent with chaos.
The same as Blood Butcher.
But the flame law's affinity with chaos was lower than that of the water element, and lower even than the law of slaughter.
The essence of water was "flow."
The essence of chaos was "uncertainty."
There was a natural affinity between flow and uncertainty.
Water could adapt to any shape, while chaos could become any form.
The essence of fire was "burning."
Burning was "transformation."
Transforming one substance into another, transforming one form of energy into another.
There was no natural affinity