Chapter 270: The Sky Devourer Descends
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They shifted positions slowly. Vel activated a soft defensive aura veil, coating the group in a faint shimmer that blended them against Alka’s plumage. The wind shifted again. The presence above them moved further eastward.
And then it was gone. Not flying away. Not vanishing in a blaze. Just... gone. Like it had folded itself out of existence.
Azhara broke the silence. "That was creepy."
The silence that followed Azhara’s last mocking wave should have been comforting. But it lingered too long, stretched like a taut string waiting to snap. The wind, once playful, now trembled unnaturally. The air felt wrong, thicker, colder, quieter than it should have been. Every instinct screamed that something was watching.
Alka’s wings shifted. Her feathers twitched as though a storm were building far above. Her head cocked to the left, her eyes narrowing on the sky.
A low vibration crept across the sky. It was not sound. It was pressure. A deep, metallic groan layered with something old and cold. As if like the hinges of an ancient tomb opening at the edge of the world. It made the soul shiver.
Vel conjured her aura lens with a practiced flick. Her pupils dilated. "There is no magic," she said.
"No beast signature either," added Sha.
But the stars began to vanish one by one, swallowed by a growing blotch above them.
Akayoroi’s antennae stood rigid. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Something is here. And it is not flying with wings."
Then it moved.