In the next instant, Raylo felt a gentle Magic Power envelop his body.

The Magic Power carried him, letting him float onto Astra’s broad, ridge-like back.

"Come on up, little ones."

Astra’s voice was gentle.

The moment its voice fell, three small figures—one white, one black, and one blue—scrambled to jump up.

It was Moonlight, Coal Ball, and Lightning.

It was the first time Moonlight and Coal Ball had stood on the back of this Catastrophe Level member of their kind, and they were exceptionally excited.

Moonlight was relatively reserved. It paced a few steps on Astra’s back, then leaped gracefully into Raylo’s arms, found a comfortable spot, and curled up.

Meanwhile, Coal Ball and Lightning, the two little ones, completely let loose.

They chased each other back and forth, playing on Astra’s back, which was as wide as a public square.

Astra showed great tolerance for this.

Slowly, it unfurled its massive Dragon Wings—wings that blotted out the sky, seemingly woven from thunderclouds and lightning.

BOOM!

A deep rumble of thunder echoed from beneath its wings.

There was no gust of wind, no shockwave.

Its enormous body simply rose into the air, slowly and silently.

On the ground, everyone stared upward, dumbfounded, at this miraculous scene.

When Astra reached an altitude of a thousand meters, its massive body suddenly pitched forward.

VWOOM!

A brilliant, silvery-white radiance of lightning enveloped its entire body.

In the next instant, it transformed into a true bolt of lightning, tearing across the sky. It shot toward the western horizon at a speed beyond anyone’s imagination.

’Fast!’

’It’s just too fast!’

Raylo could only see the scenery before him blur into streaks of color, rapidly receding into the distance.

He couldn’t hear the slightest whisper of wind, only a series of deep rumbles, like a heartbeat of thunder.

He stood on Astra’s back, steady as a mountain.

An invisible Shield, formed from the Lightning Element, protected him securely, isolating him from all the harsh winds and turbulence of the high altitude.

The feeling was utterly marvelous.

’As swift as lightning itself.’

A journey that would have taken Baofeng over ten hours was shortened immensely by Astra’s speed.

In less than half an hour, the endless, azure coastline had already appeared in Raylo’s line of sight.

Astra’s speed gradually decreased.

It retracted the lightning around its body and circled its massive draconic form once above the ruins of Seagull Port.

In the Survivor Camp, everyone was startled by the sudden, immense pressure and ran out of their simple tents.

They looked up at the sky in horror.

Watching the enormous Thunder Dragon blot out the sun and moon as it descended, everyone’s face was etched with shock and awe.

Astra paid no mind to the cries of alarm and gasps of wonder from the humans below.

It chose a relatively open stretch of beach and slowly descended.

Raylo leaped down from its back.

He looked back at the colossal Thunder Dragon behind him, a creature like a god or a demon, and his heart swelled with an indescribable sense of pride and power.

’So this is the Power of a Catastrophe Level being.’

’With a mere gesture, it can change the weather of an entire region.’

He straightened his robes, then started walking toward the Survivor Camp.

He had barely taken a few steps when he saw several figures from the camp hurrying to meet him.

Leading them were the White Siblings.

Behind them were two other people.

One was a burly man dressed in black Heavy Armor with a vicious scar carved across his face. He radiated a murderous aura as thick as a sea of blood.

It was Aurum "Blood Axe" of the Black Sails merchant association, whom he had met once before at Baisha Port.

And beside Aurum was a mysterious figure completely shrouded in a black cloak.

The person was like a walking, bottomless black hole, devouring all the light around them.

A cold, deathly still aura, full of decay and foreboding, emanated faintly from him.

Raylo’s steps faltered slightly.

His gaze fell upon the black-robed person, and his brow furrowed.

’A Necromancer.’

’And an extremely powerful one at that.’

’Since when did Aurum, that Pirate Leader who roams the four seas, get mixed up with a Necromancer—a pariah everyone wants to see dead?’

Just as Raylo was sizing him up, the other person’s gaze also fell upon him.

Or more accurately, it fell upon the mountain-like, Catastrophe Level Thunder Dragon coiled behind him.

WHOOM!

An equally vast, Catastrophe Level pressure erupted from the mysterious person shrouded in the black cloak!

This pressure was cold and deathly still, saturated with the stench of death and decay.

It was like a boundless black tide surging forth from the Nine Netherworld Hell, and it collided violently in mid-air with Astra’s domineering and unrivaled Dragon Mighty, which was full of Light and Thunderbolt.

In an instant, the world fell silent.

It was as if the entire world had been put on mute.

Everything, tangible and intangible, was instantly obliterated by the collision of these two completely different, yet equally terrifying, auras, creating a brief, absolute vacuum.