The Veil Serpent moved instantly.
Silver lightning exploded across the heavens as the ancient calamity surged forward through the vortex for the first time at full speed.
The entire sky collapsed inward around its movement.
Mountains of storm clouds vaporized beneath its pressure.
Inside the ship—
warning glyphs erupted again.
Extreme mana density detected.
Reality distortion increasing.
Barrier integrity unstable.
The black cat atop Draven's shoulder slowly stood.
Its golden eyes remained fixed on Aldric.
Unblinking.
Outside—
Aldric dragged his bleeding thumb slowly across his palm.
The blood followed unnaturally.
Etching glowing crimson lines into the air itself.
One symbol.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Each one radiated monstrous mana pressure.
The storm trembled harder with every mark completed.
The Veil Serpent's voice thundered through the heavens.
"BLOOD AUTHORITY—"
Aldric looked up, smiling.
"Ah."
His eyes gleamed violently crimson.
"So you do recognize this."
The serpent accelerated.
The storm broke apart around its colossal body while silver lightning condensed toward its jaws once more.
Aldric continued drawing.
Calmly.
Blood flowing endlessly across his palm while the crimson symbols expanded outward behind him into a massive circular formation spanning kilometers through the storm.
Kaelira stared through the fractured viewing glass in horror.
"…Why does it look like the SKY is bleeding?"
Because it was.
The clouds above the Veil Sea darkened into deep crimson as Aldric's blood sigils spread outward across the heavens like living veins.
Massive circular formations rotated behind him.
Layer upon layer.
Ancient.
Violent.
Wrong.
Every symbol burned with dense blood-red light while the surrounding storm currents warped beneath their presence.
Even the silver lightning changed.
What once blazed fiercely across the vortex now flickered erratically, as though the storm itself had become uncertain.
The Veil Serpent roared.
This time, the sound carried genuine fury.
"YOU DARE—"
BOOOOOOOOOOM—
Silver lightning erupted from its jaws in a catastrophic beam large enough to swallow entire cities.
The storm split apart beneath the attack.
Inside the ship—
Kaelira screamed.
"HE'S GETTING ERASED—!"
Aldric didn't move.
Not even slightly.
His thumb continued dragging across his bleeding palm while the final crimson symbols completed themselves behind him.
Then—
Aldric snapped his fingers.
The sound echoed across the storm.
Soft.
Tiny.
Yet the heavens answered instantly.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM—
The crimson formations behind him ignited.
Every blood sigil rotating across the sky flared at once as rivers of red light erupted through the vortex clouds.
And then—
the world behind the Veil Serpent changed.
The storm vanished.
Not destroyed.
Buried.
An enormous crimson domain unfolded across the heavens like the opening gates of some ancient nightmare.
A graveyard.
Endless.
Mountains of broken weapons stretched beneath a blood-red sky while oceans of crimson mist rolled endlessly across fields of ruined corpses.
Gigantic skeletal remains towered through the fog like fallen gods.
Countless crimson chains hung suspended through the air.
And everywhere—
eyes.
Watching.
Ancient.
Dead.
Hungry.
The silver lightning beam from the Veil Serpent entered the domain—
and slowed.
The impossible attack visibly dragged through the crimson world as though the domain itself was devouring its momentum.
Kaelira's face went white.
"What…"
The cultist couldn't speak anymore.
Her body trembled violently as she stared through the fractured viewing glass.
Even the Veil Serpent itself paused.
For the first time since its appearance—
the calamity hesitated.
Aldric hovered at the center of the blood-red heavens, blood on his mouth, smiling calmly while crimson mist curled around his body.
Then he spoke.
Softly.
"Graveyard of a Thousand Bloods."
The domain answered.
BOOOOOOM—
The silver beam shattered.
Not dispersed.
Shattered.
Fragments of condensed lightning exploded apart into countless pieces before being swallowed by the crimson graveyard itself.
The Veil Serpent roared.
This time—
there was real anger in it.
Ancient silver eyes widened across the storm while crimson chains erupted upward from the graveyard below.
Thousands of them.
They surged toward the serpent's colossal body like living spears.
Inside the ship—
Lyriana watched the unfolding catastrophe through the fractured viewing glass.
Her expression remained calm.
Cold.
Controlled.
Then she spoke quietly.
"Your Highness."
Draven didn't stop controlling the ship.
Blue mana continued streaming through the navigation arrays in violent currents while the fortress surged through collapsing storm currents.
But his eyes lingered briefly on the battle behind them.
On the blood-red domain swallowing the sky.
On Aldric standing calmly within it.
Lyriana's crimson eyes shifted toward him.
"We should go."
Silence.
Another explosion erupted behind them as crimson chains collided against the Veil Serpent's scales, fracturing entire sections of the storm.
Draven's gaze remained on the battle for one second longer.
Then—
his hand moved across the controls.
The ship accelerated.
BOOOOOOM—
Blue mana erupted through the engines beneath the fortress as it surged forward at full speed through the storm currents.
The Veil Sea behind them collapsed into crimson and silver chaos.
Kaelira finally found her voice again.
"…We're LEAVING him?!"
Aldric's laughter echoed faintly across the storm through shattered mana currents.
Wild.
Violent.
Alive.
Another colossal chain wrapped around part of the Veil Serpent's body before detonating in a blood-red explosion.
The calamity roared.
The sea below erupted upward in continent-sized waves.
Draven answered calmly while steering the ship through the collapsing vortex.
"He'll return."
Kaelira stared at him.
"You sound VERY confident about that, Master."
The black cat curled again against Draven's shoulder.
Its purple eyes slowly closed.
Outside—
far behind the fleeing fortress—
the crimson graveyard continued spreading across the heavens.
And at its center—
Aldric grinned at the ancient calamity like a man finally enjoying himself.