Jason did the craziest thing possible in that moment.
He walked straight into the open portal.
The underworld creatures still pouring through the tear reacted instantly. Several lunged at him from both sides, jaws unhinging, void-mist trailing from their ash-bone limbs. The instant any part of them made contact with his body, they simply crumbled. Flesh that was not flesh blackened and peeled away. Bone-like structures collapsed into gray dust. The process was not explosive or dramatic—it was quiet, absolute, and final. They rotted out of existence mid-motion, their forms disintegrating before they could even finish their attacks.
Within seconds a clear path of drifting ash marked Jason's route to the tear.
