Two hours after departing the blood-stained trenches of the Skyfield Forest, the Fire Phoenix—a towering construct of living, vermilion plasma—pierced through the final bank of clouds. Below them, the landscape of The Grand Dominion had shifted from the lush, temperate greens of Forest City to a rugged, volcanic terrain where the very earth seemed to pulse with a dormant heat.
From this altitude, the city of Flame City revealed itself not as a mere collection of buildings, but as a sprawling, high-tech industrial hive built within the massive, hollowed-out caldera of an ancient volcano. The sheer scale of the urban sprawl was staggering. If Forest City was a regional hub of trade and education, then Flame City was a continental titan. It was twice the size of Leo’s hometown, a labyrinth o
