The enormous strange bird beat its wings, whipping up powerful currents of air.
Shura, the Knight of the Sky, rode atop Fuza, gripping a heat lance wrapped in gray cloth as he looked down on the Eclipse forces below.
As the priest in charge of the Rope Trial, he had always regarded Blue Sea people as no more than grass.
"You ignorant mortals dare set foot in the domain of gods."
Shura pointed his lance forward, its tip glinting faintly red beneath the sunlight.
"Before Lord Enel's thunder, mortals can only kneel. The moment you entered this place, you were destined to receive divine punishment."
Before he finished speaking, a heavy grinding sound came from a thick tree trunk nearby.
Satori, the Priest of the Forest, bounced between the treetops like an enormous balloon. His bloated body swayed as he let out an odd, grating chuckle.
"Hehehe, you can't escape."
With a flip of one hand, dozens of round, snowy-white cloud balls appeared in the air. They looked soft and fluffy, yet restless flickers of energy danced across their surfaces.
"This is the Ball Trial, with a survival rate of only seven percent! Every Surprise Cloud is stuffed full of explosive surprises you Blue Sea people could never understand."
The Eclipse soldiers on the ground did not even look up, merely maintaining their tight anti-explosion formation.
The bushes to the west were suddenly sliced apart with neat precision.
Ohm, the Sky Breeder, emerged slowly from the shadows, leading Holy, a massive dog as large as a bear. A strange longsword hung at his waist, its hilt embedded with a thick white shell.
Ohm drew his sword with a backhand motion. The seemingly ordinary iron blade immediately twisted and stretched like a living creature, turning into a long, heavy white ribbon.