Darkness in the Deep Sea (Fifteen)

A suffocating dread hung over the Jewel Sea Islands.

As Reilo, Alder, and Audrey watched, a massive dark-red meteor blazed across the sky, trailing hundreds of meters of black smoke. It descended at a thirty-five-degree angle, gathering speed as it plunged toward the ground.

By their estimate, the impact point was only about twenty-five kilometers away in a straight line!

Given the vast expanse of the Jewel Sea Islands, the three of them might as well have won the lottery. Stunned, they stared at the dazzling streak in the night sky and waited for that brilliant instant of destruction.

Blinding light erupted.

The moment the meteor fragment struck the ground, its burst of energy lit up the entire night sky!

"Take cover!"

Alder was the first to react.

As a scholar who studied the laws of nature, he ran a rough calculation of the energy release in his head. The answer was terrifying, and his face went pale.

"Take cover!" he roared again, his voice cracking with tension.

He swept his staff through the air. A ripple spread outward, and the soil around them melted like butter. The three sank into it.

Reilo caught a glimpse of a wall of dust dozens of meters high on the horizon, racing toward them at astonishing speed.

BOOM!!!

Before they had fully sunk underground, a near-solid shock wave swept across the surface. It nearly ripped Reilo out of the soil and sent him flying.

It felt as though a giant hammer had struck Reilo square in the heart. He could not hold back a grunt.

The jellylike soil around him shuddered violently.

Inside his 1024 Nights Guardian Shield, Reilo kept descending, his face pale.

A shock wave from so far away had hit with such force. He did not dare imagine what it