The mist surrounding the Sanctuary disappeared at sunrise.
People stopped in streets, on balconies, and beside breakfast stalls as the land beyond the familiar town came into view.
The Sanctuary had not ended at the old forest boundary for weeks. Max had expanded it several times and hidden the unfinished regions while gnomes, dungeon creatures, and system workers prepared the race route.
Now, an entire horizon unfolded.
Far to the east, a snow-capped mountain rose above dark green foothills. Sunlight turned its highest glaciers gold. Waterfalls descended from a canyon south of the mountain, forming a river that curved toward the Sanctuary's lake.
The western land was darker. Black stone ridges surrounded an active volcano. Smoke drifted from its summit, and thin red lines glowed along one slope.
Between the extremes lay a field of enormous stone pillars, a marsh covered in silver reeds, and a forest whose trees grew in spirals around open shafts of air.
