Chapter 262 – The Last Gap
The volcanic terrain announced itself a day out.
The substrate's temperature was different underfoot—not hot through the stone, but the rock had a quality Dragon Mode read as geothermally active, the deep rock cycling through expansion and contraction as heat moved through it from below. The ancient network here was visible at the surface in a way no other ancient staging had been: the stages had been built from volcanic basalt, dark and dense, and they emerged in places through the surface stone like ribs.
This was the oldest terrain he had walked.
