The nearest creatures dissolved mid-lunge from the discharge. Bone, sinew, and whatever Darkness had stitched into them collapsed into ash before they could fall.
But there were more.
There were always more.
They came from the pods, from the vein-wrapped windows, from gaps in the flesh-carpet below that split open like mouths.
Hundreds of them, each one wrong in a different way — too many joints, too few eyes, movement that violated basic physics.
I didn't land. Landing here would be a bad idea.
Instead, I climbed, fast and steep, until the air thinned and the stench of the city became something I could process rather than something that pressed against my scales like a living thing.
Below me, the ruined city pulsed. Once. Twice.
I had seen monster hordes before. Chaotic things, driven by hunger or territory. This was different. The creatures weren't swarming randomly — they were forming a perimeter.
