Chapter 56: Danger
The deployment of the formation was swift. Under the oppressive heat, Rhys, Yuki, and the Wanderers rode their Dune-Skimmers to the calculated point of convergence.
The silence of the desert was eerie; had it not been for the rhythmic hiss of the Dune-Skimmers gliding over the endless white sand, one might have thought oneself deaf.
The sky was pale, already poised to accept the arrival of the Tyrant.
Rhys rode at the head of the procession. The ’Chains of Temporal Stasis’, his month-long masterpiece, rested within his spatial pouch, waiting to unleash its immense power upon the world.
He felt the wild, chaotic energy of the Tempest Djinn core thrumming within his specialised dantian, a familiar storm now tamed to his will.
He was an Artisan, a weaver of wind and runes, and he had never felt more ready.
Yuki rode beside him like a silent, beautiful shadow clad in black leather. The possessive clinginess she had displayed in the workshop was gone, replaced by the focused calm of a predator.
Her light-blue eyes constantly scanned the horizon, her senses attuned to the subtle shifts in the desert’s energy.
She was his guard, his partner, and the most dangerous variable in this entire equation.
The Wanderers followed, led by Bael. Their faces were grim, etched with the tension of the coming battle, but their eyes held a fierce, desperate hope.
This was their final gamble, their one and only chance at the salvation they had craved for centuries.
As they travelled, the signs of the convergence became undeniable. A faint, almost imperceptible rain of grey ash began to fall from the cloudless sky.