The battles in Edrisyl and Sestia had begun nearly three hours ago.
Far beneath the roots of Yggdrasil, where neither moonlight nor the pulse of natural mana could ever reach, an ancient cavern remained wrapped in suffocating silence.
The chamber was enormous, vast enough to resemble the hollowed remains of some buried cathedral. Jagged pillars of black stone rose toward the darkness above while countless crimson mana stones embedded within the walls cast a dim and ominous glow over the underground ruins. Their light spilled across the floor where enormous incantation circles had been carved directly into the earth itself.
Layer upon layer of archaic inscriptions spread throughout the chamber like scars engraved into stone.
Some were ancient enough to have nearly faded away while newer carvings had been etched over them repeatedly across generations. Concentric circles overlapped one another in a maddening labyrinth of curses, rituals and forgotten language.
