A deafening, absolute silence blanketed the hills on the outskirts of Lamping Village. The residual smoke from Dola's molecular incineration drifted lazily through the air, creating eerie visual distortions over a landscape now carpeted in soot and scorched Mana residue. In the center of this desolation, the Maiden's Sanctum stood defiant, emitting a steady, rhythmic neon glow—a high-tech medical oasis in the middle of a slaughterhouse.
Dola stood directly in front of the transparent dome. Her white cape billowed softly in the acrid wind, but her aura was no longer the helpful, supportive one they knew. The warmth in her eyes had been bleached away, replaced by the flat, cold, and calculated stare of an entity that had just remembered it was once the harbinger of a civilization's end.
The heavy silence was suddenly shattered by the sound of frantic footsteps and labored breathing.
