The transition from the thermal heat of the desert to the icy teeth of the northern frontier was brutal.
As the transit platform cleared the fortified northern gates of the Lumia Kingdom, the landscape transformed within minutes. Sweeping dunes gave way to jagged, black basalt crags, which quickly disappeared beneath a desolate tundra of gray ice and howling, sub-zero winds. The sky above was choked by thick, bruise-colored storm clouds that bled no light, turning the world into a freezing, sunless expanse.
Kyle stood at the edge of a snow-covered ridge, his long dark coat snapping wildly in the gale. Beside him, Yua pulled her high collar up around her neck, her crimson eyes narrowed as she watched her own breath freeze into instant frost before her lips. Seraphina stood unbothered, her royal trident planted firmly in the packed snow, the ambient moisture of the blizzard naturally coalescing around her in floating, iridescent ice crystals.
