Three days had passed since that sudden great war.
The towering walls of Black Raven Stronghold stood silently beneath the night sky. This sturdy fortress, built of black granite, had endured a battle of unimaginable brutality. Even the fortress general could hardly believe it was still standing after the storm. The Chaos Storm and the monsters that came with it had nearly destroyed all the outlying forward towers and Order Runes stones. The orderly layers of defense outside Black Raven Stronghold had vanished without a trace. The outer defenses that had once bristled with watchtowers, high walls, and massive rocks now consisted of nothing but gray-black shattered gravel. Even the fortress walls themselves were battered beyond recognition, with enormous cracks and holes punched straight through them everywhere. From a distance, they looked riddled with a thousand wounds.
Perhaps they would not even have to wait for the next storm. A single wave of wandering Chaos monsters would be enough to bring the black fortress crashing down.
Philip tightened his padded coat and looked back at the towering upper fortress of Black Raven Stronghold. In the hazy night sky, the ancient fortress resembled a volcano spiraling upward and gradually narrowing. Layer upon layer of granite walls and towers of all sizes formed the cliffs of that mountain, while the flickering lights swaying between the walls and towers looked like lava flowing down its slopes. At the very top of the fortress, the light of the Tower of Kindling rose into the heavens like a white tower reaching from earth to sky. A faint barrier poured down from the top of that "White Tower," enveloping the entire fortress.
Although it still appeared dazzling, the Tower of Kindling's Light of Order was no longer as bright as it had been.
The Tower of