Just as Lada stepped into the Gate of Glory, a gentle breeze blew into her face, followed by scattered raindrops. A few even landed on her face and slid down to the corner of her mouth.
"This is... salty?!"
Lada's eyes widened. In apparent disbelief, she looked behind her, her gaze reaching farther and farther, into the thick black fog hundreds of nautical miles away.
In just a dozen seconds or so, the relatively small Sea of Miracles went from clear to overcast. Dense storm clouds appeared in the sky, with thunder faintly stirring within them. The wind grew stronger and stronger, showing no sign of stopping as it blew toward the darkness.
The Blind Believers outside the city noticed the anomaly too. They stopped praying or stopped dismembering and carving up Dream Island and Sweet Island, which were suppressed by Holy Light, and all looked toward the darkness behind them, as though something inside it drew their attention. Though these Blind Believers had long since lost their sight, it was actually the Radiant Goddess keeping watch.
As the storm intensified, the surface of the Sea of Miracles began to slope upward in a bizarre fashion, as though driven by the wind, though it looked more like something was sucking it over.
A vague outline also emerged in the darkness. It was impossible to make out clearly; all they could sense was its inconceivable size.
Then a white fly's head broke through the storm clouds overhead and reached downward. In place of its mouth was a highly elastic siphon tube covered in ring after ring of markings. Upon locating the Blind Believers below, it let out an excited, piercing screech, opened its mouth, and sucked, sweeping countless ships, Blind Believers, and structures on the sea into the sky, along with