The red mist spreading above the clouds marked the extent of the Abyssal invasion. The aura of chaos would ravage every corner of Karamus's borderlands alongside the demons' footsteps and the opening Abyssal Rifts. By the time Punk joined the Guardian Alliance, the evil from the Abyss had already claimed half of Karamus's territory, and this vast empire had been forced to abandon its less prosperous regions to ensure the safety of its rear areas.
Of course, an empire ruled by a legendary organization still possessed an immense foundation. Even after losing half its land, Karamus could not yet be said to have suffered any crippling damage. After all, the true core value of Karamus lay in the magical gardens surrounding the Blazing Sun Magic Tower. Its essential resources all came from the Blazing Sun grade materials cultivated in those gardens, as well as the stable soul profits provided by an enormous population. So long as those sources had not been fundamentally destroyed, the Kalamus Empire would neither collapse nor be abandoned by the Mage Guild.
After all, the wealth an empire could cultivate as "farmland" was not something Punk's own Hatak Minor Imperial Nation could compare with. For now, Karamus, having evacuated the overwhelming majority of its poor citizens in time, had not yet lost that precious and stable population-based benefit.
But how long could such an optimistic situation last—a situation so wonderful that it seemed they could launch a counterattack against the Abyss at any moment, reclaim their territory, and bring this crisis to a swift end with far less trouble than expected?
The mission Punk had received from the "President" was to assist the demons and the red-robed ones in invading Karamus, allowing the Abyssal Demons to destroy Mestur's magical gardens and encircle the Blazing Sun Tower.