The unified realm of the Central and Western continents settled into a state of tense, calculated order under the shadow of the violet ether-shield.
The Great Merger was complete. The borders of fourteen conquered kingdoms had already been redrawn, their populations cataloged, and their ancestral temples replaced by the dark, towering spires of the Dragon Empire.
Yet, there remained one loose thread in the tapestry of Adonis's new world, a small, stubborn territory nestled in the northern valleys of the Central landmass: the Kingdom of Fernis.
Fernis was not a military superpower. It possessed no world-eating beasts or divine armaments. Its value lay entirely in its history, specifically in the bloodline of its royalty.
The imperial vanguard arrived and the sky above the capital city of Fernis simply died.
