Central Region.
At this moment, the sky above a hidden valley was no longer blue, but was now a choked, suffocating canvas of oily black smoke and embers that spiraled upward like glowing ghosts.
Deep within the dark embrace of the mountains, a place that didn't appear on any official maps of the Eastern Region, an entire village, one of the structural nerve center for one of the Shadow Hall's most secretive regional operations, was being absolutely erased.
The architectural elegance of the hidden base, once a marvel of concealment and dark design, was now a funeral pyre.
The smell of charred wood, expensive silks, and the unmistakable, heavy scent of burning flesh and evaporating blood hung in the stagnant air.
At the edge of the central plaza, a man was crawling across the cracked cobblestones, his skin was charred beyond recognition, his robes fused to his flesh by a heat that surpassed natural fire.
