Ricky sat silently atop the flat surface of a stone table, his figure cast in deep shadow beneath the oppressive sky. Above him, a thick blanket of black clouds loomed like a shroud of death, stretching endlessly across the heavens and refusing to let a single ray of sunlight pierce through. There was no dawn—only darkness.
The air itself had grown heavy, suffused with a silent dread that pressed down on the land like an invisible weight. Eldros Kingdom lay blanketed in this suffocating gloom, as though the entire region had been sealed within a tomb of silence. No bird calls, no rustling wind—only the stillness of a world holding its breath. Ordinary people, unaware of the full extent of the threat, still found themselves gripped by unexplainable terror, as if their throats had been bound by chains of iron.
