The battle was over. The field was littered with the crumpled bodies of the armored skeletons. The air still hung heavy with the reek of ozone and the scent of pulverized bone. Karl's soldiers, now clad in the gleaming green-steel armor, looked formidable, their blue eyes now a cold promise of power.
Later, as the group approached the ziggurat, the sheer scale of the structure became terrifyingly apparent. It was a massive, stepped pyramid of obsidian-like stone, its glowing green circuits snaking up its sides like an impossibly large spider's web. The air grew even colder, the dark mana so thick it felt like a physical weight on Schalezusk's shoulders. A low, rhythmic hum emanated from the ziggurat, a sound that seemed to resonate in their bones.
