Verdun front.
The roaring artillery echoed between the cliffs and hills of the Marne River valley, thick smoke like a giant hand continuously covering the gruesome battlefield.
Mountains were blasted open, stones and fragments of mud rolling down in torrents.
The land was lifted into the sky, the flying dust mixed with thick smoke, lingering for a long time without dissipating.
Forests ignited by the artillery fire burned in patches, the crimson flames illuminating half the sky like blood, spreading everywhere and greedily consuming everything nearby.
This place resembled a living Purgatory, with death, bodies, and blood everywhere, making life seem insignificant.
...
Inside the Suville Fortress, nearly sixty-year-old Major General Lacos, commander of the 2nd Army, sat dejectedly at his desk, staring at the map before him.
