Lightning that did not belong to this season flashed through the heavy clouds hanging low at the edge of the sky, bolts striking down one after another. Beneath the pale-purple horizon stretched an endless wilderness plateau.
"They're here!" The wind whipped the flags as someone shouted through the gale. A tiny speck appeared on the horizon, followed by a second and a third. More and more specks emerged, gradually forming a glittering line. Like a tide just beginning to rise, a thin waterline had appeared where the sky met the sea.
Then came the vast sea itself.
Along that jagged line stood towering figures no one had ever seen before—the Crystal Cluster Lords. A projection of the Leviathan Progeny appeared in the sky, the tail of a swimming leviathan whale rising and falling among the clouds. When the clouds parted, they revealed a huge, hollow black sphere, like an empty eye watching this barren highland.
Everyone fell silent.
The crowd suddenly parted on its own, and Freya, clad in White Lion Armor, walked onto the battlements accompanied by the knights. Sharp currents of air ruffled the mane on her collar, sending each white strand of lion fur standing upright and streaming backward. Purple lightning was reflected in the girl's dark eyes, bolt after bolt, as though illuminating her gaze.
Her long hair danced before her snow-white brow. Compared with the valiant female knight she had once been, the softness in her eyes now held more charm and tenderness. Everyone sensed the change in their commander's bearing. Freya was like a newlywed wife, tightly clutching that ring and watching this scene with pursed lips.
Even from several kilometers away, the trembling of the earth had already reached them.
The cold wind came from the plateau of Karasu, swept through Tosankard Forest,