The sky screamed. It wasn't the sound of thunder, the rushing of wind, or the physical collapse of mountains. It was a literal, coherent scream—a sound so vast that Orion felt it vibrating within his bones before his ears could process the noise.
The entire academy froze. Every student trailing behind the evacuation lines, every senior combat instructor occupying the high walls, and every cultivator within a hundred kilometers paused in their tracks. The world itself seemed to recoil from the sound, and inside the column of black light, the colossal eye continued to open slowly and patiently, like an entity awakening from a dream older than civilization itself.
