While the colossus and the group were moving away, the ground trembled again, a slow, grinding quake that crawled up through Raven's scaled legs and into his chest.
Ash skittered across the broken earth like startled insects.
Far ahead, the crater seethed—a smoking wound in the world—each breath of black flame louder than the last.
Raven stood unmoving, a crimson silhouette of scale and shadow. His humanoid body stretched to nearly two and a half meters, red-black scales glinting faintly beneath the dying sky.
His dragon head angled slightly forward, crimson eyes narrowed, smoke curling from the edges of his fanged jaw.
Omni, still in its three-meter form, rested lazily on his shoulder, humming with a faint metallic purr that vibrated against the air like a heartbeat.
Graye stepped up beside him, armor gleaming despite the ash.
Another tremor rippled through the ground, and she laughed softly—an almost childlike sound against the looming roar of death.
