The moment Damon's group arrived, the world around them was already unraveling. From their vantage point on a ridge well outside the city gates, Lotera city no longer resembled a stronghold of human civilization. The entire place looked as if it were being swallowed by a humongous tornado of darkness.
The small anomaly in the sky had by now become a full-blown vortex, a wound in the heavens that bled darkness and corruption into the world below. The anomaly was no longer a curious swirl of black energy, it had grown into a colossal storm that stretched across the skyline, blotting out the dawn sun.
The protective enchantments of Lotera's defensive formations were long gone. The once strong and sturdy city gates were completely ruined, with only bits and pieces of them remaining. The city buildings and towers that once stood tall now lay in heaps of rubble, as though some unseen giant had smashed its fist straight through the heart of Lotera.
