Visen
A vast canyon warped by space and time slowly emerged at the top of the void. Like a black cloud pressing down on the earth, it pushed out of the depths of the void inch by inch, carrying a suffocating presence.
He Ao drew his gaze away from the enormous canyon hanging upside down in the sky and looked at Slan. "So why did you summon the God of War's tomb?"
"I'm not your subordinate. Why should I report my results to you?" Slan smiled at He Ao. "Eldest Brother Dernothus, I think you'd better worry about the city you're protecting behind you."
At his words, He Ao turned to look behind him.
The enormous city shrouded in haze was now covered in a dense web of Purple Radiance.
The radiance came from deep within the city and from the Kwotela Ruins above it.
An invisible, terrifying pressure spilled from it, weaving an even finer net across the earth.
He Ao looked farther out. As far as he could see, nearly all of Visen was covered by the web of Purple Radiance. People lay in their homes and on the streets, utterly unconscious.
The purple web connected almost everyone. Light flickered across it in dense pulses, like the rhythm of something breathing.
The city's millions of residents had all been drawn into the Purple Radiance.
The long-prepared ritual had brought every sacrifice it needed onto an altar prepared long ago.
The Purple Radiance burned and flashed fiercely. The city's lives and souls had become its surging fuel, its crackling firewood. "That's power left behind by the God of Death?" He Ao asked, looking back at Slan.
The purity of that power exceeded what he had expected, and Slan's power was clearly not purple.
The God of Death had plainly