The Core Area of the Evergreen Mountain Range no longer resembled a natural landscape. The trees that once thrived in abundance had vanished, not burned, not cut down, but seemingly erased as if they had never existed at all.
A vast expanse lay bare under a flood of golden light that engulfed nearly half of the core territory. This light didn't flicker like fire or pulse like lightning; it simply was, steady and overwhelming, rising from the center of the mountain basin and piercing the sky in an unyielding column.
Above it, clouds had been torn apart, spiraling outward to create a wide ring, leaving a hollow circle of the blue morning sky where the beam ascended.
The ground beneath was uneven in places, smooth in others, with stone surfaces shimmering faintly as though touched by something sacred or forbidden.
