Chapter 521: The Storm’s Seal
Before anyone could react, the Category 12 hurricane gave birth to countless massive tornadoes that ripped across the sea with terrifying speed.
Darkness swallowed the battlefield almost instantly. The sky vanished behind black storm clouds, the sea disappeared beneath curtains of rain, and the entire world descended into chaos. The tornadoes had formed so suddenly that everyone who witnessed them was left with the same stunned thought: How could they appear this fast?
Yet from the highest point of Twin Wing Island, which still lay just beyond the storm’s reach, the entire catastrophe could be seen unfolding.
A Celestial Dragon locked in battle with a Demon Dragon, along with a giant sea turtle famous for possessing nearly impenetrable defenses, were all caught by the suddenly formed tornadoes. Even Divine Beasts were powerless against the overwhelming force, ripped from the battlefield and hurled through the air like weightless toys. The enormous sea turtle, whose shell was nearly the size of a football field, was torn straight out of the ocean and spun helplessly through the sky as though it weighed nothing at all.
No one could believe what they were seeing: those were Divine Beasts.
Only then did the people watching from Twin Wing Island truly understand just how horrifying the storm had become, and unfortunately, that was only the beginning.
The Celestial Dragon, the Demon Dragon, and the giant sea turtle immediately surrounded themselves with layers of protective energy, desperately resisting the tornadoes. They managed to endure for barely a minute.
Then came a series of deafening cracks: CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
All three Divine Beasts were torn apart, their bodies exploding into countless bloody fragments that scattered across the storm like crimson rain.
Disbelief spread through the islanders.
If even Divine Beasts couldn’t survive, what hope did anyone else have?
The tornadoes swept across the battlefield like endless rotating blades, grinding everything caught inside them into bloody pulp.
And the storm was far from finished. Hailstones the size of clenched fists poured from the heavens in relentless waves, falling so densely that they resembled a solid curtain, and smaller monsters were battered senseless, crushed beneath the unending barrage, but an even greater nightmare arrived moments later.
BOOM! CRACK! SNAP!
Blinding bolts of lightning split open the heavens, and every strike shattered again the instant it collided with rain and hail, branching into countless smaller spears of lightning that rained endlessly across the sea.
Anything below Mythic rank was erased the instant it was struck.
Even Mythic Beasts and Divine Beasts fared little better; every bolt blasted massive, charred holes straight through their bodies, leaving smoking wounds that refused to close.
The lightning was every bit as terrifying as the tornadoes themselves.
"Run!"
Panic spread across the battlefield.
Monsters fled in every direction, and countless sea creatures instinctively dove into the depths, believing the ocean would shield them from the storm above.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
The battle had already thrown the surrounding elements into complete disorder, and if the sky had become a disaster zone, the sea beneath it was no different.
Beneath the surface, the ocean itself had gone mad.
Towering waves rose like mountains before collapsing into bottomless troughs, only to slam into one another with earth-shaking force. Violent currents twisted through the depths in every direction. Water that had once been their home became a weapon, smashing into bodies with the weight of boulders, slicing flesh apart like invisible blades, and tearing countless sea monsters to pieces.
The ocean was destroying itself.
Within ten minutes, only the handful who had fled before the storm fully erupted managed to survive; everyone else, including several Divine Beasts that had failed to escape in time, was completely obliterated.
Watching through a spyglass from Twin Wing Island’s highest peak, all anyone could see was an endless world of rain, hail, lightning, and roaring tornadoes colliding with one another.
Not a single living creature remained visible.
Even the Sea Goddess and the Shark Demon Lord, beings whose strength bordered on the divine, had vanished into the heart of the storm.
Before such overwhelming natural power, every living being seemed insignificant.
Thirty minutes later, the tempest reached its true peak.
The storm had become an apocalyptic force stretching across the East Sea, expanding farther with every passing minute.
Born from the battlefields surrounding Twin Wing Island, it closed in from every direction until the entire archipelago was encircled, and from the island, the terrified survivors watched colossal tornadoes and towering walls of lightning connect the sea to the heavens, sealing off every possible route of escape.
There was nowhere to run.
If the storm struck Twin Wing Island directly, nothing would survive; the island itself would likely be torn apart and erased from the map.
Then, something no one could have predicted happened.
As the storm fronts converged around the island from every direction, the opposing winds collided and formed a powerful balance that forced the raging tempest outward instead of inward, and the violent currents gradually dispersed around Twin Wing Island, leaving both the island and everything within roughly thirty-five kilometers completely untouched.
Against all odds... They had survived.
Beyond that peaceful circle, however, the world remained a living nightmare.
Viewed from high above, Twin Wing Island rested calmly at the exact center of an immense ring of destruction, beyond which the endless storm stretched toward every horizon, swallowing sea and sky alike.
To the southwest, its outer edge extended as far as the coastal waters of Blue Sea Citadel, and the devastation continued unabated for more than ten days.
Outside the storm’s epicenter, where the final battle had taken place, its power weakened considerably; it was no longer strong enough to kill Divine Beasts outright, and even monsters around Level 30 could survive if they were careful.
Crossing it, however, was another matter entirely.
When the storm finally showed signs of calming, the Dragon Dynasty attempted to activate the teleportation array connecting Blue Sea Citadel to Twin Wing Island.
Nothing happened.
The violent lightning saturating the region completely disrupted the teleportation network.
With no other choice, they dispatched ships instead. What awaited them left even seasoned veterans speechless.
Within a hundred-kilometer radius surrounding Twin Wing Island, the sea had transformed into an impassable wasteland, where towering waves crashed endlessly against one another while violent currents and enormous whirlpools churned beneath the surface, capable of tearing apart anything unfortunate enough to enter.
Above the sea, colossal tornadoes stretched from the ocean to the clouds, and endless rain, hail, and lightning filled the sky, forming a seemingly eternal barrier powerful enough to stop even Divine Beasts.
The storm still hadn’t disappeared.
It continued to surround Twin Wing Island like an enormous prison, completely sealing the archipelago away from the outside world; the constant lightning interference rendered every teleportation array useless, while the raging winds and maelstroms made travel by sea or air all but impossible.
No one could enter. Not even Divine Beasts could force their way through that barrier.
From that day onward, Twin Wing Island was completely cut off from the rest of the world.