Chapter 134
Across the Empire of Bertha, every soul who had looked up expecting death instead watched the crimson overhead curdle and crack, veins of pure light splitting the red apart like dawn forcing its way through a storm.
In the capital, the young man who'd been certain the world was ending fell to his knees in the street, tears cutting clean lines through the blood dust coating his face.
"It's… it's receding," he whispered. "The blood. It's actually receding."
His friend grabbed his shoulder, shaking him half in relief, half in disbelief. "Did you see that? Did everyone see that?"
Around them, strangers who moments ago had been clawing toward shelter now stood frozen mid-stride, heads tilted back, mouths open, watching gold eat through red in slow, spreading arcs.
On the rooftop above them, the armored man with the dragon-forged sword exhaled something that might have been a laugh.
