The air was tinged with a faint rusty smell, like the bitter aftertaste of phlegm in the throat after recovering from a serious illness.
Even after several decades, the lingering traces of the Blood Demon invasion of the Death Swamp continued to affect the area.
It was utterly barren.
Even before the war, this place had been little more than a refuge for a few subordinate alien tribes and some dangerous, primitive creatures. When the Holy See and the Blood Demons waged a large-scale war here, the tribes were either caught up in the fighting and wiped out without a trace, or fled in disarray, never to be seen again.
As for the so-called dangerous, primitive creatures, they naturally became raw materials for the Blood Demons to build their Fat Blood Nests. The invaders had slaughtered and plundered them all.
In the faint, hazy mist, the Canary beat her wings and surveyed the unfamiliar Surface World.
At their full flying speed, the two of them could cover the area of a duchy in about a day.
This was a gradually shifting wind eye formed by unusual geological conditions. The Death Storm grew stronger here, giving rise to moving dunes.
"Once we enter the Death Storm, our flying speed will drop considerably. If we fly at full speed in this direction, we should reach the Grand Natural Sciences Academy's territory in about a dozen days. We can pinpoint our coordinates then."
After confirming their direction, Reilo put away the compass.
The Underground World creature had been nervous for a long time, constantly worried that Reilo would kill him once he was no longer useful. Unable to think of anything else to say, he finally ventured, "If I'm not mistaken, that Grand Guardian you mentioned earlier also came from the Underground World.