The all-out attacks of the Soul Domains of all four Celestial Dragon Elders seemed to slow down as a shadow spread from Maximilian's body.
The branches of the Celestial Worldtree stopped midway through their swing. The glittering stingers hung motionless in the air, the waves of the Frozen Starsea froze at their crests, and the falling glacier seemed to hover above them. Even the dust of stars that had been drifting through the broken sky stopped moving.
In the blink of an eye, the Abyssal shadow spread outward, devouring the world around them. The flower field, the cracked sky, the towering trees and the mountains of ice vanished one after another without making a single sound.
Everything fell silent, the darkness covering as far as the eye could see. There was no wind, no cold and no heat. Even the elders' own heartbeats seemed to have been swallowed.
