The Supreme Art (A Monthly Vote at the Start of the Month, Please!)

The Southern Ridge Mountains stood majestic and unbroken, running through the southernmost reaches of the Terra Continent. Countless towering peaks and steep ridges rose within them, like a strong, powerful arm sheltering the fertile foothill plains of the entire Southern Ridge Province within its embrace.

Yet Terra possessed another magnificent mountain range: Abasalom. One of the great bloodlines of the Blazing Flame Lands had taken its name from it.

The people of the Blazing Flame Lands had once believed it to be their mother mountain range, blocking the incursions of mountain barbarians and countless Magic Beasts, while also shielding them from the Empire's covetous gaze.

But after several centuries of peace, the people of the Blazing Flame Lands discovered that this former mother range had not merely blocked others from entering—it had also blocked their own path out.

And that was not all...

The Absalom Bloodline, once dominant throughout the Blazing Flame Lands, had been trapped within its landlocked interior. It could only watch as the Nemarsas Bloodline, which controlled the desert trade route through the Farflame Lands, steadily grew stronger, eventually surpassing them to become the foremost power of the Blazing Flame Lands.

Yet that trade route came with both profit and peril. Its benefits were obvious, while its drawback was equally clear: should foreign enemies invade, the Nemarsas Bloodline would be the first to bear the brunt.

That was why Death Knell's homeland had once prospered, why even country boys could play carefree with the girls they loved amid field gardens—and why, during the first clash between the Blazing Flame Lands and the Empire, his homeland had been utterly destroyed by aerial bombardment.

Even now, Death Knell did not understand that logic. He only knew that the Imperials had killed all his family, that the Empire had destroyed