"The Banes are more meticulous than the rumours," a knight said, riding at full speed toward the Jungle of Pines. "Now I understand why the Hundred Sky Mountains is the only independent territory in the Western Continent."
"Careful with your words, Sir Jason," the knight on the horse beside him said. "You could be beheaded for those words."
The two knights, along with a group of fifty others, had been sent as a scout party by the emperor to investigate the cause of the thunderous explosion he and the other Eternal Sages had heard from the direction of the Jungle of Pines.
"Wh-what could have caused destruction on such a scale?" Jason gasped, his eyes widening as the party reached the depths of the forest.
The land was shattered like spiderwebs, trees uprooted from the earth, and the corpses of elite soldiers lay everywhere, the ground beneath them crimson with flesh and blood. Some of the knights even vomited at the horrific sight before them.
