Valeria turned her head slightly when Sage shouted from behind her. Her crimson eyes rolled with a cold irritation that somehow conveyed more relief than anger, though her expression remained almost unchanged.
She shot him a quick glance, silently questioning whether he truly had the strength to joke at a moment like this, then returned her gaze to the monster floating in the distance beneath the strange ocean-like sky.
The creature hovered there like a nightmare that had forgotten how to end, its massive shell blocking out the blue glow above. Hundreds of green eyes blinked slowly and lazily, while endless tentacles drifted around as if the devastation it had just caused was nothing more than an afterthought.
Even from their vantage point, despite Valeria having shattered the sound wave with that crimson strike, the pressure from the creature pressed against their skin and bones like a warning. No one dared to breathe too loudly or look away for too long.
