The sky did not just shimmer at the edge of the floating archipelago. It groaned under the weight of the monsters.
Vane stood on the precipice of the southern sky-piers with his midnight-blue training robe snapping in the high-altitude wind. The clouds below the floating island were churning as white mist spiraled into violent funnels. High above, the silhouette of the Academy's guardian Sky-Dragons circled the spires. Their metallic scales caught the sun as they banked, watching the massive intruders rising from the lower atmosphere. Beside him, Ashe was a coil of restless energy. Her obsidian horns were pulsing with a rhythmic crimson light. This was a biological response to the familiar mana-signatures rising from the depths.
Valerica and Isole stood a few paces back, but they were not the only ones waiting.
