The scorched earth crunched beneath my boots with every step I took.
Ash fell from the bleeding crimson sky like gray, toxic snow, dusting the remains of crushed ironwood trees and shattered stone. For miles in every direction, the landscape was completely devoid of life.
No birds, no beasts, not even the ambient hum of wild mana. Just dead, silent waste stretching toward the jagged horizons.
I narrowed my eyes, pulling up the collar of my doublet to shield my nose from the stench of sulfur and old decay.
Where the hell is everyone?
My mind raced with uneasy possibilities. How long had Yuki's stasis kept me buried in that subterranean dungeon? Weeks? Months? A year?
If the entire countryside looked like this, had the Academy fallen completely? Had the capital been wiped off the map?
