A little while later when Han Yu sat up and looked forward—
His breath caught.
The caldera lay below like a wound in the world, vast and steaming. Rivers of slow-moving magma glowed with lazy menace, threading between fields of black rock and ash dunes. In the center was what looked like a crater within a crater, and within that crater—
A massive, blackened skeleton.
Charred. Ancient. Half-buried in obsidian.
A creature the size of a building, curled as if in death throes. The earth around it pulsed faintly with heat and red light. Something in Han Yu's gut told him that's where the Fireborn Beasts would be and where he could get their ashes.
But getting down there, especially with Mist Eye disciples possibly lurking around?
That would be a whole new nightmare.
Han Yu remained crouched on the ridge, his eyes fixed on the titanic skeleton below. The heat of the caldera rose in shimmering waves, but it was not enough to blur the awe-inspiring scale of what he was seeing.
