The Northern Wastes had always been a region of absolute, unforgiving cold. For centuries, the deep, howling blizzards and the crushing, ancient glaciers had remained entirely undisturbed by the passage of time or the wars of the gods.
But as Kael and Lucian rapidly descended from the fractured upper atmosphere, they found a landscape completely suffering from a catastrophic, systemic breakdown.
The cosmic audit program was actively attempting to reformat the fundamental thermal dynamics of the entire continent. The result was a terrifying, highly lethal environmental glitch. The solid, ancient glaciers were violently oscillating between absolute zero and explosive, volcanic eruptions of liquid digital static. Massive, jagged spikes of glowing red deleting code erupted forcefully from the permafrost, only to be instantly flash frozen by a sudden, unnatural drop in the ambient temperature. The air itself shrieked as the physical laws of thermodynamics were completely shredded.
