The view slowly pulled back from the bottomless giant pit in the Forbidden Land.
Past the Lava Zone, past the Poison Mist Swamp, past Magnetic Storm Canyon, past Shadow Forest, past the entire Forbidden Land.
Then it continued pulling back.
Past the outer reaches of the Dark Continent, past an area that had never been explored.
The sky here was dark red.
Not the red of a sunset, but a dark crimson like congealed blood—heavy, oppressive, like an enormous curtain shrouding the entire land.
The ground was charred black. Beneath its cracked surface, dark-red light faintly flowed, as though magma coursed through the earth's veins. Corrosive toxic mist filled the air, twisting even the light as if something had crushed it to pieces.
There were no plants here, no animals, no trace of life.
There was only death.
And something even more terrifying than death—oppression.
In the distance stood a gigantic black castle in the middle of a lava lake.
The castle stood several hundred meters tall, built entirely from dark-red stone. Twisted patterns covered the stones, resembling countless agonized faces. A black flag flew from the castle's peak, embroidered with a golden crown—the national emblem of the Kakin Kingdom, though altered, with six spikes added around the crown.
Countless gigantic monsters roamed around the castle.
Within the lava lake, a Level 210 Lava Dragon swam. It was three times larger than the lava giant lizards of the Forbidden Land, its entire body covered in dark-red scales, each one flowing with magma. Whenever it moved, the entire lava lake boiled.
Outside the castle gates, two Level 220 Shadow Bears stood guard. Each was over ten meters tall, covered in pitch-black fur with faint dark-red light flowing through it. Their eyes were pure gold, without whites or pupils, like two burning