The open door was like the maw of a gaping avici hell; the Shura monarch within the flames stepped out from the pitch-black threshold of the abyss. With every stride he took, the fires on either side of the corridor surged and flickered more violently, roaring in ecstatic frenzy as they came to pay homage to their sovereign.
The glare of the fire drove away the billowing, blinding white steam, illuminating the scorched, blackened ground where fine scales lay scattered, stretching all the way to the other end of the long hallway.
The air was thick with the foul, fishy stench of blood. Ordinarily, dark brown blood should have stained those scales, but after the searing flames swept across them like a rainbow, the blood was instantly boiled and vaporized into the air, leaving not a trace behind.
Chapter 105