Time flew.
Starfall Year 834, the 3rd of February, deep winter.
The entire North was covered in snow for half a year. Although there were fewer blizzards come February, the chilling frost winds were still billowing across the plains, spreading icy crystal shards and snow dust everywhere across the sky.
It was now three months after Herlas's death and the Mount Mordus ruins incident at Moldova. However, compared to the Imperial hierarchy that was unruffled as if a frozen lake, the entire Mycroft Continent—especially the many royal houses in the West Mountains region—were astonished by the monumental event.
The new generation of Pestilence cultists, led by Herlas the Witherer himself, had run rampant across the West Mountains in the past few decades. They concealed themselves within the ancient forest, making bases at underground shrines filled with hidden circles and runes while executing horrific sacrificial rituals everywhere.
