The subterranean catacombs beneath the shattered Iron-Cloud Administration Fortress were a theater of absolute, suffocating carnage. The air was unnaturally dense, heavy with the coppery, metallic stench of freshly spilled blood and the cloying, putrid rot of ancient marrow. Sickly green flames writhed within massive bronze braziers bolted to the jagged obsidian walls, casting long, distorted, and monstrous shadows across the raging battlefield. The deafening cacophony of clashing profound-steel, detonating elemental Qi, and the dying screams of fanatical cultists echoed endlessly through the spiraling, claustrophobic descents.
At the vanguard of the Imperial forces, the highest-ranking women of the Celestial Dragon Empire moved as a singular, devastating unit. They had long since discarded the brittle pretense of fragile royalty. Here, amidst the slaughter, they were apex predators, their Late-Stage Martial King auras roaring with blinding intensity.
