Chaos had descended.
A torrent rushed toward them—the capricious wind falling from the heavens, unstoppable. Lumen stopped the vehicle. Every inch of sensation, every inch of rock, was trembling. Something was constantly rising.
Chaos opened its eyes.
"That is an existence beyond the stars! Close your eyes, quickly!"
Rhodes Island's warning system issued its alert in time. Piercing alarms rang out in alternating bursts, red lights flashed everywhere, and every display showed exclamation marks and blinking WARNING messages.
It was a calamity, an irresistible and inescapable cataclysm, etched deep into every person's soul.
They had never seen such a thing in their lives, yet perhaps all it took was a single upward glance from an ancestor thousands of years ago for this fear to be carved into their genes and passed down through generation after generation.
That was natural selection. Children who felt no fear before the stars could no longer leave descendants behind.
"Question: who exactly summoned this monster?"
"According to the mission report, it was a Leithanien mage. As for why it responded, we do not know. One of the elements of terror from the stars is that it is unpredictable and incomprehensible—a state of absolute chaos."
"That makes sense. Bronya fully understands."
Kal'tsit was hiding in the most fortified part of Rhodes Island, receiving Bronya, who had rushed over from the shrine.
Rather than a ship, Rhodes Island was more like biological armor. Blessed by the Deep and possessing mysterious properties of its own, it could offer at least some resistance against the Chaos Shadow.
"Are all enemies powers that come from the sky?"
Bronya probed indirectly, attempting to learn some of the world's secrets from the "omniscient" Kal'tsit.
She got nothing.
Naturally, she had not expected Kal'tsit to act like a quest NPC, dropping everything to