"What the hell is that?" Ria muttered in disbelief.
They had travelled towards Verona, expecting the northern cities and landscapes of ice.
Even the sprawling verdant forests that were scattered near the borders and giant mountains.
Instead, what they were greeted with was the complete opposite.
Where there should have been the azure frozen plains flanking their sides were instead replaced by cracked and bloodied soil. Broken weapons stabbed into the ground like gravestones, corpses littered as marks of battle.
There was no grass or vegetation, only scorched and withered debris.
The forests of Verona were turned into skeletal husks, each tree melding with bone, transforming into a malformed ribcage as though a giant beast was merged with the ground.
Bark that peeled away, revealing pulsing lungs.
It was still 'alive'.
