The darkness that dropped over the Grand Coliseum of Nine Dragons was not caused by natural storm clouds. It was an artificial eclipse engineered from ancient, blood-red array wards.
High above the four-hundred-foot dark rock rim of the stadium, thirty-six massive bronze array cooking pots flared to life with sickening, oily crimson smoke. The smoke didn’t fade into the sky. It swirled inward, forming an iron-hard, hemispherical dome of thick, blood-colored zhenqi that sealed off the entire airspace of the stadium from the rest of the capital.
Down in the lower concourses, thirty-two huge, hundred-ton iron-hard metal blast doors remained slammed shut, their heavy iron seams sealed by ancient First Epoch crushing weight runes that glowed with evil scarlet malice.
Half a million citizens, tributary merchants, and high-born elders were trapped inside the dark rock bowl like helpless insects sealed inside an iron terrarium.
From the central commentary tower, Chief Arbiter Han’s voice boomed through the sound horn, his tone soaked with forced, frantic royal majesty:
“Royal subjects of the Great Da-Qi! Rejoice! By royal mandate of Crown Prince Yan Wuji, the supreme Sovereign Blood Purification Ceremony has officially began! The ancient old family leylines need the baptism of true martial resolve! None shall leave this sacred arena until the sovereign bloodline claims total, total victory over the frontier rebels!”
