Chapter 968 - The Seven Crowns

Strax broke through the upper layer of the desert only seconds before the passage collapsed completely behind him. The explosion of sand followed his emergence like a solid wave, striking his wings, filling the gaps between his scales, and reducing visibility to only a few meters. He continued climbing without slowing down, using White Fire to clear space around his body while Black Ice spread across the most damaged parts of his wings, preventing the compromised joints from giving way beneath their own weight. Below, the center of the dunes sank in broad, irregular circles, as though the entire region were trying to accommodate something too large to remain buried.