The meteor crashed directly onto the Sky City.
It detonated in a corona of silent, white light, a second sun blooming against the dark. The sound arrived a heartbeat later like the loudest thunder, as if the world was torn into two parts. Every soul in the Solmara Continent must have felt it.
No doubt about it.
The ground convulsed. Mountains reduced to ash. In distant villages, plates shattered on tables.
Every part of the continent felt the meteor's reach.
Even the Sky City's fabled dome—known to be impenetrable across the realm, stronger than a citadel-class Obelisk of Life, held for less than a breath. It shattered like fragile glass. Then came the shockwave of pure force.
It flattened the gleaming marble quays. It vaporized crystal spires where ancient histories were etched. Millennia of culture, governance, and arrogance were scoured from the sky in a fleeting instant. Nothing the city possessed could even slow it.
