A few pieces of metal rained down as debris, clattering against the roots and ground with a sharp clang.
Lucius raised his head, watching the fragments fall like arrows from the heavens, and a cold feeling settled in his chest.
He had a suspicion of what this meant, a theory already forming in his mind.
Yet, he forced himself not to jump to conclusions. Guesswork wouldn't save the settlement. Answers would.
Without another moment of hesitation, he launched himself upward, climbing through the vast spirals of the World Tree until he breached its thick canopy.
What awaited him there was chaos. Shards of twisted metal, glowing faintly with residual mana, were tumbling from the sky in clusters.
The air was heavy with heat and the acrid tang of burning steel. It was as though the heavens themselves had torn apart and were hurling their waste at the world below.
Then, the device in his hand flickered. It pulsed with bright light, stronger than ever, almost alive.
