partially submerged in water. Its shoulders scraped the clouds, a turtle’s shell rising behind it like a shield strapped to its back.
It was a titanic statue come to life, a walking mountain. Its face looked like a man’s, but expressionless, as though it had indeed been carved. Stone eyes glowed slightly, dull yellow.
Just by its presence, it dominated the earth aura for many miles. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
Lindon wasn’t about to extend his perception to check.
Its control of earth aura was so intense that it stained the sky gold, as the Bleeding Phoenix had once enhanced blood aura until the sky blazed red. All around, mountains buzzed as though quivering in anticipation.
The Titan’s arm was plunged into the earth up to the elbow, and it knelt almost motionless as it fed.
Power moved up its arm slowly but steadily, like sap in a tree. A hunger technique. Intense aura flowed into the Dreadgod, but not just aura. Lindon couldn’t be certain without a direct scan, but it felt like even physical materials were consumed by that hunger.
He had sensed the Wandering Titan directly before, perhaps closer than anyone other than a Monarch. He didn’t want to try it again.
Stone and dirt slowly collapsed around the Titan’s arm, falling inward like a sinkhole.
Lindon’s right arm quivered, its madra resonating with the presence of the Dreadgod, but his will was stronger. The limb never left his control.
The Titan appeared almost motionless, except for its tail. It resembled a monkey’s tail that stretched out into the ocean perhaps half the length of the Dreadgod’s body, and it lashed back and forth like an impatient snake.
With every motion, it carved waves from the sea, sending walls of water splashing up to the sky.
Lindon put the Dreadgod to their backs and directed all his power to propulsion.
Their fortress shot forward.
Scripts inside manipulated aura to control air and gravity, preventing the inhabitants from pitching over at the sudden acceleration. He followed one of Charity’s owls due east, chasing silver-purple tailfeathers.
He felt like he’d bared the back of his neck to a hungry tiger. It could strike at any second.
Sweat trickled down his back and his forehead, and he kept his eyes flicking between the window to the front and the projection of the Titan behind them. It didn’t seem to be bothered by their presence, maintaining its hunger technique, but they wouldn’t be out of danger until they were many miles away.
Charity stayed behind, next to the portal, as purple cloudships emerged one at a time and streaked after Lindon.
The Heart Sage floated in place with her shield raised, vigilantly watching the Dreadgod. It wasn’t long before half the cloudships had emerged from the portal, trailing behind them like ducklings.
Lindon’s fear started to fade into exhilaration. They’d made it. They were okay.
Then, in an inexorable tectonic shift, the Wandering Titan stood up.
Madra cycled through the Dreadgod’s body, and in the same instant, their cloud fortress was buffeted in midair. The protective scripts screamed as they resisted an invisible assault, the projection construct fuzzing into chaos so that Lindon could no longer see what was behind them.
They were under attack.
It took all of Lindon’s spirit to steady their flight and recover their path. He couldn’t believe they’d survived one hit, but that certainly wasn’t all the Dreadgod could do. That must have been only a glancing blow.
When the projection construct recovered, it showed them the Wandering Titan again.
It had turned a bit to its right, taking one long, slow stride that crossed the entire space where Sky’s Edge had once stood.
Lindon’s breath came in tight gasps.
The Dreadgod hadn’t noticed them at all.
Shields of purple-and-silver madra faded from where Charity had protected the string of ships behind them, but for one cloudship, even her power hadn’t been enough. It was a pile of smoking rubble on the ground below as though the Titan had swatted it out of the sky.
But the Wandering Titan had done no such thing. It had only cycled its madra for a brief instant. That was no more threatening than taking a breath.
They had taken casualties from the Dreadgod doing nothing.
Lindon felt the lost lives of the unknown Akura Golds settle on his conscience like a lead weight. He hadn’t known anyone on the cloudship’s crew, but they wouldn’t have been here if not for him.
As they flew into the distance, leaving Charity watching the colossal monster behind them, the tension slowly deflated. In its place was only cold dread.