The heat streaming from the midsection of the Central Primordial Stele was not common fire. It was the raw, uncompressed heat pressure of a sky gearwork encountering an unhandled fatal exception. Across Line Forty-Two, thirty-six blood-red glyphs writhed like agitated vipers. The crimson light cast flickering shadows across the white dragon-bone marble plaza. That turned the calm safe hall into what looked like the mouth of an active fire.
The physical air began to vibrate at a violent ringing hum. Pebbles on the floor danced in tiny circles. The teeth of every scholar in the tiered arena ached with sound deep ring. High above, the sky curdled into bruised, greasy clouds of soot that spiraled downward. He smelled of sulfur and scorched stone.
Chief Proctor Zhong Shan took one look at the violent crimson runes, and his face lost every trace of color.
“The... The Seal of Total Sky-trial!” Zhong Shan shrieked, his voice piercing the three-mile arena. “The ancient prophecy of the First Epoch! The royal scrolls of the Grand Chu Empire recorded it thirty thousand years ago! Whenever the Blood Glyphs wake up upon the Great Megalith, an entire mortal empire is erased from existence! The heavens are passing judgment upon our generation!”
