The profound, enveloping darkness of the isolated mountain cavern was broken only by the faint, shimmering light of a few luminous pearls Imperial Consort Shu had withdrawn from her spatial ring. Outside, the sheer, apocalyptic devastation of the beast horde battling the Imperial Guards raged on, but within the absolute, impenetrable boundary of Alaric's Eight-Desolations Void-Concealment Matrix, not a single tremor shook the stone walls. They were completely, flawlessly cut off from the rest of the Celestial Dragon Empire.
