Above Marine Headquarters.
The black sun vanished amid violent lightning. A red ring spread outward, sweeping across the island, its brightness gradually fading as though it had been "diluted."
The "phenomena" produced by the other "rituals" also gradually disappeared.
The brilliant lightning subsided, and an ionized cloud woven with red and blue spread above headquarters.
-Bang!
A sonic boom rang out.
Bondrewd suddenly shot out of the ionized cloud at tremendous speed.
Hundreds of multicolored balls of lightning erupted from the cloud behind him, spreading into a chaotic aerial barrage that engulfed his flight path.
The ball lightning followed wildly unpredictable trajectories, its forms constantly shifting. Sometimes the spheres linked together to discharge arcs; sometimes they merged into plasma explosions.
Half-dragonized, Bondrewd spread his dragon wings and flew at astonishing speed, leaving a purple halo in his wake.
He weaved through the blockade of ball lightning, rolling and maneuvering through the constantly shifting gaps in the airspace.
Yet his dragon wings did not flap. Beneath them, glowing purple "points of light" were "ejected" backward, looking rather like science-fiction particle thrusters.
-Boom!
Thunder roared. The ball lightning ahead of Bondrewd linked together on a massive scale, unleashing a saturating sheet-lightning discharge.
Bondrewd raised both hands, and his black mechanical forearm armor ejected a mass of black fluid.
-Reach for the Moon.
After separating from his mechanical arm guards, the spreading "black network" passed through the discharge zone, becoming a blazing-hot, brilliant mesh that broke apart and scattered toward the ground.
The surging electrical energy was channeled down with it, creating a dazzling shower of silver sparks.
The high-energy sheet lightning ahead of Bondrewd was instantly cleared away.
"-Trying to escape?!"
A bolt of "lightning" shot from the ionized cloud.
The cloud churned behind it, chaotic rainbow light and flickering auroras creating