The two red circles mark the locations of the two cities that have mysteriously become ghost towns.

Domoko looked at the map and measured the scale on it with his finger: "These two cities are not far apart, less than a hundred kilometers from the edge."

“Not only that,” Thor pointed to a charred mark on the edge of the scroll, “the sealing technique on this map bears the aura of a sacred, forbidden spell unique to the Knights of the Holy Judgment. No one but them could leave such a unique magical imprint. That’s why I brought it back immediately.”

Domoko nodded and laid the scroll flat on the dragon scales: "That's right."

He raised his head and looked at the distant night sky: "Just as I said, the Holy Knights of Judgment are not fools. After they arrived here, they discovered some fatal problems. In fact... they even foresaw their impending doom, which is why they spared no effort to expend magic to seal this map under the base of the statue, leaving it for future investigators."

"What's the problem?" Thor asked back, staring at the map but finding no other special geographical connection between the two cities besides both having lost people.

“Isn’t this just a regular border defense map?” Thor added.

Domoco then tapped between Losga and Newt on the map.

“Do you remember the divine artifact, the Sky Mirror, that I just told you about?” Domoko said.

"Of course I remember."

"The Sky Mirror has been sealed in the Holy Light Treasury for many years, but it is a divine object passed down from ancient times."

Thor paused, then grasped at something: "You mean..."

“Its original location,” Domoko said, his finger tracing a line across the blank area between the two cities on the map, his fingertip pausing on a contour line, “is right between these two cities!”

Thor looked in the direction Domoco was pointing. It was a dark ravine that was not very noticeable on the map, running between the cities of Losga and Newt.

“Fallen Star Canyon?!” Thor blurted out, calling out the name of the place.

“That’s right, it’s Falling Star Canyon.” Domoko withdrew his hand. “If I remember correctly, during the Dark Ages before the founding of the Free Federation, there was a huge ancient ruin there.”

"Back then, the first Holy Lord paid a heavy price deep within the ruins of Falling Star Canyon to bring out the Sky Mirror, thus establishing the supreme hegemony of our Holy Church."

Upon hearing this, Thor shuddered.

All the clues were connected by an invisible thread.

The divine artifact Sky Mirror, the disappearance of two million people, and the map of Falling Star Canyon left behind by the Holy Judgment Knights!

“Could it be...” Thor looked at Domoko, “that the Sky Mirror requires specific geographical conditions to be used? Or is someone using the Sky Mirror to transfer all two million people to that ancient ruin in Falling Star Canyon?!”

"What exactly does he want to do with all these living people in this ruin?!"

Domoko tucked the parchment scroll away and put it back into his pocket.

He turned around.

"Want to know the answer?" Domoko patted the neck of the dragon beneath him.

"hold head high--!"

Sensing its master's fighting spirit, the golden dragon Ek roared, its massive body turning in the night sky.

"Let's go!" Domoko said, braving the fierce wind, enunciating each word clearly. "To Falling Star Canyon!"

"No matter which deity is behind this game, today, I'm going to overturn their chessboard!"

The wind howled in my ears.

"hold head high--!"

The golden dragon Ek soared through the clouds, each flap of its wings stirring up gusts of air in the night sky.

On the dragon's back, Domoko and Thor looked down at the land below.

As they got closer to Falling Star Valley, the changes in the landscape became increasingly apparent.

The mountains, which were originally covered with lush vegetation, were cleaved in two by an invisible giant blade!

The earth is crisscrossed with ravines tens of meters deep, the scorched black soil is churning and still emitting pungent smoke.

"Stop and take a look." Domoko patted Ike's neck, his voice low.

The dragon hovered in mid-air, its vertical pupils staring at the ruins below.

Thor leaned out halfway and gasped.

"Lord Domoko, look over there!"

Domoko frowned as he looked in the direction Thor was pointing.

It was the entrance to a valley that had been razed to the ground. In the center of this scorched battlefield, metal fragments were scattered.

Among those fragments lay corpses lying haphazardly.

Even from hundreds of meters in the air, Domoko could still see the details on the corpses.

A shattered silver breastplate, a broken holy spear, and... the Holy Judgment Cross stained with blood.

"They are from the Holy Judgment Knights."

Domoko's voice turned cold.

“A full hundred S-class elites...” Thor gritted his teeth and gripped Mjolnir tightly. “Completely wiped out? Not a single survivor?!”

"It seems that our deduction was correct."

Domoko straightened up.

"The real battlefield wasn't those two cities that vanished into thin air. They were just slaughterhouses where they gathered their prey."

He untied the metal wine flask from his waist.

"The true core... lies within this Falling Star Valley!"

He tilted his head back and drank the rest of the ale in the jug clean.

"Bang!"

Domoko casually tossed the metal flask through the air in an arc before it crashed heavily onto the rocks below, shattering into pieces.

"Thor, prepare to fight to the death."

Domoko drew his dragon spear from behind him, the tip pointing diagonally towards the sky.

"Today, no matter what kind of monsters and demons are hiding down there, I will uproot them all!"

at the same time.

The deepest part of Falling Star Valley.

The lighting here is eerie, and the air is filled with a nauseating, thick smell of blood.

A massive, dark red array was slowly rotating along the rock face of the valley. Countless streams of visible life energy were converging from the array's patterns into the depths of the earth.

In the shadows at the edge of the formation.

A bald man with dark skin, sitting cross-legged on the ground, opened his eyes.

His eyes had no whites, only a dark gold color.

He stood up, stretched his neck, and his bones cracked.

"Koch".

The bald man raised his head, looked up at the night sky, and laughed.

"Prey has come knocking."