The Ashen Clearing still reeked of death.
Not the fresh copper scent of creature's slaughter, but the deeper corruption of bodies left long enough for decay to settle into stone.
The swamp beyond the pale ground continued its eternal work of dissolution, dark water lapping at scattered remains that would eventually disappear into mud.
Jack Kaiser stood at the clearing's center, alone.
The Clan Leader and the surviving Blight Demons had fled the moment his shadow fell across them. No words were necessary. They understood what his presence meant after watching a thousand of their kin reduced to ash and char remains.
His white hair caught what little light penetrated Floor Twenty's perpetual gloom. His yellow-orange eyes tracked across empty space where translucent forms lingered.
The souls of the fallen were still tethered to this location by the violence that had claimed them.
