Time passed day by day, and ten years vanished in the blink of an eye.
In the autumn of Amber Calendar Year Twelve, the Shadowflame Kingdom on the Dragon Sleep Continent appeared somewhat desolate. Most of its population had already relocated to the Amber Dreamscape.
Few people remained in the real world. Elves and Phantom Beasts alike had become exceedingly rare. Yet without humans to disturb it, the Shadowflame Kingdom had grown lush and verdant, radiating a different kind of primal, wild beauty.
The snowfields had long since vanished, leaving only the changing seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Furious Wind City.
It had been engulfed by heavy industry. Massive chimneys stood in unbroken rows, with no environmental standards whatsoever and wastewater flowing everywhere.
Across a vast surrounding area, almost no grass grew.
Even a Wyvern flying over the city nearly opened its mouth to vomit, the pungent stench rushing straight into its head.
Yet it possessed a prosperity found nowhere else in the Shadowflame Kingdom. Machinery roared, traffic bustled, and factories and laboratories filled every corner. All manner of innovations fraught with danger and pollution were being carried out here.
If the Amber Dreamscape was a flawless new world, a painting destined to endure for countless ages.
Then the Dragon Sleep Continent, destined for extinction, was the finest sheet of scrap paper.
Whooo!
The train station whistle sounded. Nicholas, the renowned literary giant and playwright whose immortal classics included Riding the Dragon Youth Journey and Thunder from the Dragon Domain, boarded the train with several servants and guards.
Following a train now fitted with an Internal Combustion Engine locomotive, he departed Furious Wind City and sped across the former Fire Ant Swamp.
Then, after crossing desolate, uninhabited lands for several days and nights, he arrived at Warm Sun