"Don't get distracted."
Katakuri turned back toward the front as sea mist rose along both sides of the ship. "Whoever they are, they won't change our course."
"Yes."
Above the clouds, dragon wings sliced through the damp air.
"Someone's down there."
Rossi's voice mingled with the wind.
"I sensed them."
The other person on the dragon's back replied briefly.
Two probing perceptions swept up from the sea below, like invisible feelers.
They reined in their presences in unison. The wing membranes beat sharply, sending them hurtling into the thick mist ahead.
"Let's find the place first."
The dragon flew so fast that it left the thunderstorm behind in moments.
But the light did not brighten. Instead, they plunged into an even heavier wall of gray-white fog.
After another stretch of flight whose duration was hard to judge, the outline of land finally appeared at the edge of their perception.
"Land."
As they descended, the island's details gradually sharpened.
Countless towering columns stood amid the sprawling shadows, stabbing silently into the sea of fog.
"The coordinates match."
After checking several instruments in her hands, Oni nodded with certainty.
The dragon's wings folded, and three figures leaped down from midair.
Their boot soles touched down one after another, barely making a sound.
Once he had steadied himself, Rossi looked around.
The fog wound around their vision like a damp burial shroud. The rows of distant chimneys were reduced to blurry silhouettes, frozen in perpetual gloom.
Greenish water pooled in depressions in the ground, giving off a fishy stench like rotting seaweed. A faint, ghost-fire glow shimmered across its surface.
Bones of varying sizes lay scattered among the rubble. Here and there, a sickly blue-green spark glimmered on their surfaces, barely illuminating the little patch of ground at their feet.
"This place really