Another bolt of lightning crossed the sky. Angel's Dark Vision gained a wider view, revealing buildings all around her, tall and short alike, all so decayed they looked as though they had stood for thousands of years.
The wooden doorframes and window frames had vanished over the long years, leaving only walls of stacked stone and empty openings.
Dead moss covered the street between the stone houses, interspersed with patches of black. They were the same color as the bloodstains Angel had seen in the basement. It was easy to imagine how many creatures had once walked this street, only to die here for some reason, leaving not even bones behind.
Rumble—
Thunder rolled on and on. The lightning faded, and complete darkness reclaimed everything.
No Crimson Moon. No stars, bright or dim. Only endless darkness...
Angel looked around. Though her Dark Vision let her make out nearby objects in this lightless place, she struggled to see into the distance. It was as if this darkness was no ordinary absence of light, but an "anomaly" caused by some special power.
Darkness in which even moss had died, lightning and thunder that came and went, the strange behavior of the Hidden Holy Emblem... Angel's mind raced, and she soon recalled a term buried deep in her memory:
"The Forsaken Land of the Gods!"
Mr. Sun of the Tarot Club had once mentioned that his City of Silver lay in just such a vast, yet incredibly dangerous region.
Abandoned by the Creator, it had no sun, moon, or stars. There was only endless darkness, punctuated by lightning and thunder at irregular intervals.
More importantly, in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, anyone plunged into complete darkness would vanish within seconds, leaving no corpse behind. Even with candles lit and oil lamps in