Chapter 580: Waiting amid the Smoke of War
Viewed from high above, parts of the world north of certain central regions of the Ganning Sen Empire would have appeared an unnatural red. Even at night, they resembled red earth bathed in the last light of sunset.
Along some of the boundaries between colors, a mass of black clouds constantly shifted. Lights, some faint and others spectacular, kept rising along those boundaries, while the clouds gradually thinned.
The land was red partly because of the encroaching power of Hell, but also because underground magma had begun gushing out in many places.
Apart from a few peculiar locations where the eruptions were particularly violent, most of these places produced little volcanic ash or smoke.
"Puff... puff... puff..."
"Gurgle... gurgle... gurgle..."
At one eruption site, scorching magma had pooled into a small lake. The intense geothermal heat baked the air across a broad stretch of the surrounding area until it shimmered and warped.
Bubbles churned up in waves, and fresh magma emerged from underground. The magma here showed no sign of cooling, defying all common sense.
"Gurgle... gurgle... gurgle..."
Special, bloated Greater Demons lay over the spots where magma welled up, gulping down mouthfuls of the strange molten rock. They were already enormous, the smallest measuring over twenty meters, like fat red maggots with heads, huge mouths, and eight clawed limbs.
The humanoid Greater Demon, relatively small by demonic standards, stood atop a stone spire whose base was submerged in magma, watching the distant sky.
A little earlier, it had sensed something strange. But perhaps it was too far away, or perhaps the locust swarm hundreds of kilometers away had blocked its view. It had seen no light or unusual phenomena.
As for the other Greater Demon, it was tending the Spell Formation