One day earlier, just as Amon had completed his cocooning and begun seizing the Dragon King's power.
On the river.
A colossal Naga with the upper body of a human and the tail of a snake danced between river and sky, soaring high one moment and plunging into the water the next.
First came a deep rumble from the very bottom of the river, like the muffled sound of bones grinding as some colossal beast turned over. Then the sand and gravel along the shore began to jitter and bounce, as if countless tiny creatures were fleeing in panic beneath their feet.
As the Naga's dance grew faster and faster, the true tremor—arrived.
It was as though the entire world beneath their feet had begun to convulse. Solid ground instantly lost its support, becoming a deck atop raging waves.
Cracks like black lightning tore open the riverbank without warning and rapidly spread. The towering cliffs on both sides, which had endured countless ages of wind and rain, groaned under the strain. Massive rock formations began shifting and peeling away, while an unending thunderous roar came from within the mountains, like boulders rolling through a vast dome.
"An—an earthquake!"
Lu Mingfei's footing gave way, and he nearly fell. Fortunately, Zero yanked him back just in time. A palm-wide crack was opening viciously where they had been standing.
Everyone lost their composure, the color draining from their faces as they instinctively staggered and ran away from the riverbank and the collapsing cliffs.
Looking back, it was a scene straight out of the apocalypse. Hundred-meter-high cliff faces peeled away in massive sheets. Boulders fell like rain, smashing into the river and kicking up muddy surges as tall as small hills. Those that struck the shore made the earth shake and the mountains tremble,