[VOLUME 15: THE PRIMORDIAL PILGRIMAGE][ARC 1: THE SHATTERED DARK AND THE FIRST MYTH]
The roar did not just echo; it fractured the very air.
It was a sound so ancient, so unfathomably vast, that it vibrated straight through the soles of Elara's bare feet and settled deep into the marrow of her bones. It was the sound of a nightmare waking up after a ten-thousand-year slumber.
Instantly, the world around Elara violently contracted.
Aldren's massive, leathery wings snapped shut around her, forming an impenetrable, pitch-black cocoon. His chest pressed hard against her back, his heavy, erratic heartbeat slamming against her spine.
On her other side, Li's celestial frost flared. The Emperor of the Heavens didn't summon a sword—he became the weapon. The air around them crystallized into a dome of absolute zero, his golden eyes blown wide and feral as he scanned the chaotic horizon for the source of the threat.
