Talona's Ambition

The Realm of the Cycle of All Things.

This was Talona's domain. At a glance, it looked much like the Temple of Nature, with primeval rainforests, forests, swamps, mountains, and wilderness stretching in every direction.

Countless plants and animals thrived here, forming one complex, ever-changing ecosystem after another.

Unlike a true wilderness, however, the Realm of the Cycle of All Things had civilizations. Cities and even kingdoms had risen in its most resource-rich regions.

Though modern people would consider its inhabitants relatively primitive, they had used magic and biotechnology to modify large flying creatures, gaining access to air transport early.

Geography therefore did not isolate its city-states and kingdoms. Trade and exchange flourished between them, giving the whole realm a distinctly strange character.

Only those who lived here knew that the realm's most distinctive feature was its ubiquitous, highly active microorganisms, including fungi, bacteria, and viruses.

They swiftly broke down the bodies of dead creatures, returning them to the ecological cycle as nutrients.

Meanwhile, in jungles and swamps seldom visited by people, creatures carrying deadly poisons, bacteria, fungi, and viruses fought and devoured one another with savage ferocity, evolving together toward ever greater lethality.

Some planar merchants even braved enormous risks to come here, hoping to obtain the legendary poisons said to kill even a Primordial Dragon in an instant.

At that moment, Raymond stood in the realm's most mysterious swamp, the Mere of Dead Men, watching Catachan Devils of every size from the Warhammer Universe with keen interest.

They were no longer the original creatures. Under Talona's Divine Power, they had evolved through dozens of generations into extraordinary Magical Creatures—biological nuclear bombs in the truest sense.

The Giant Barking Toads in particular had gone from affecting a one-kilometer radius to seven or eight kilometers. Their toxins continued spreading through