The Black Hermit City had never been so quiet. What once thrummed with the pulse of abyssal commerce and power now lay under an eerie stillness.
The vast metropolis, carved from blackstone and veined with crimson crystal, stood shrouded in half-light.
The eternal night above was split by flashes of distant red lightning from the direction of the mines, staining the skyline like bleeding wounds.
The spires that once shimmered with authority now flickered dimly, their sentinels gone. The patrol routes that normally teemed with armored guards had thinned to shadows.
Every capable expert, every Abyssal Guardian and Abyssal Lord, every commander had been summoned to the mines to assist the Dread Duchess's command or to contain the spreading corruption.
The castle that anchored the city, the grand fortress of Khazar, City Lord of Black Hermit, was a fortress in name alone tonight.
