The ruins of Xike City had been rebuilt by the tireless labor of its undead into a new city, somewhat smaller than the original. Perhaps because of some unique "undead sensibility," the ghosts of Xike City had deliberately used black stone to build it.
They had even gone out of their way to paint the walls black if they were any other color.
This gave the square, orderly city the gloomy air of a "great cemetery." At night especially, its very appearance carried a certain oppressive force.
At the highest point of the black city of the undead, Murphy leaned on his Longnight Guard saber and gazed toward East Prussia. Though the night in Transia was nearly over, a layer of ink-black darkness still covered the land at the edge of his vision.
"The night is almost over, Master."
Adele's light voice sounded beside him. She said,
"Dawn is coming to Transia."
"But no sunlight will rise over there."
Murphy kept his eyes fixed on the distance. "Blackie's more determined this time than we expected. I suspect he may have bound his very existence to the domain of East Prussia. That must be how he managed to create a light-devouring veil powerful enough to block the sunlight in a single night—and to make the Lord of Darkness's power grow so much stronger in the space of one night.
"It seems that after escaping his cage, he really can draw power directly from the world's cycle of day and night."
"As you said, this is the Lord of Darkness's last gamble."
Adele wasn't particularly nervous. She folded her hands over her abdomen and spoke softly.
"If the Chaos Tide in East Prussia fails to take shape, then no matter how powerful that mere old god becomes, he'll end up butchered and