"What's the situation?" Asked Lu Xinglan as she appeared at the massive wall of the city.
Her voice was taut, vibrating with the authority of the Pope, as she addressed an elder who was stationed there.
The elder was a man who looked to eighty years(but is definitely older than that), his robes singed and his breath coming in ragged gasps, but he did not turn his head to answer.
Shen Haoran and the others also followed after her, their footsteps landing heavily on the ancient, reinforced stone of the battlements.
The air at the top of the wall was thick with the smell of sulfur and the distant, low-frequency thrum of thousands of rhythmic footsteps.
The elder simply pointed at the horizon.
There, the sky had turned red, a bruised and bloody crimson that swallowed the natural blue of the atmosphere.
The sun was obscured by a thick, rising haze of ash, and at the edge of that world, the barbarians can be seen charging towards them, leaving behind a trail of fire and lava.
