**Chapter 331: The Greedy King's Court**
**[Timeline: Days After the Scorched Ridge]**
**[Location: The Neutral Zone – Jagged Canyons]**
The silence in the canyon was absolute.
A moment ago, the narrow pass had been a localized dimension of incinerating heat, a 6th-Order Purgatory designed to melt bone to ash. Now, the air was freezing. The jagged obsidian walls, flash-cooled by the sudden erasure of thermal energy, groaned under the suffocating weight of the 8th Order.
Lord Pythios, the Master of the Flame Tower, knelt in the dirt. His jaw trembled, his crimson robes clinging to his shaking frame. He tried to summon his mana, to reignite the spark of his Arch-Mage core, but the ambient mana in the atmosphere refused to answer him. It was completely subjugated by the figure standing before him.
