Seeing his reaction, Viola waved a hand with a smile. “No need to worry too much. Though the details are sparse, a wizard posting a mission at the Junction typically aims to conquer a plane for their wizard tower. For a plane to be chosen as a wizard tower, it must have relatively orderly rules.”
Orderly rules meant the plane’s laws were similar to those of the wizards’ native plane.
Though there were differences in specifics, they generally followed certain patterns, like the Elosia plane cluster.
Troublesome planes had overly unique rules, where wizards often suffered non-combat losses.
For instance, Jie Ming had heard of the Shadow Plane, where merely staying there caused continuous harm to wizards.
The value of these planes was hard to assess. For individual high-tier wizards, orderly planes were more valuable, while special planes held greater worth for wizard factions.
As they spoke, the entire plane suddenly quaked violently!
The ground beneath them cracked with a grinding sound, as if under unbearable pressure.
Jie Ming saw the barren sky above torn open by a massive rift—a real tear in the plane’s barrier!
“We’ve arrived!” Viola’s voice grew grave.
The other wizards shifted into combat readiness. In an instant, Jie Ming felt the atmosphere across the plane change.
Their destination had been reached!
In the boundless chaotic void, there existed a dazzling and peculiar plane known to its inhabitants as the Flame-Frost Plane.
From its birth, this world was endowed with an extraordinarily unique geography and ecosystem.
The plane was split in two by permanent projections from two distinct elemental planes, resulting in two starkly contrasting landscapes.
One half bathed in the eternal radiance of the fire elemental plane’s projection.
Here, perpetual daylight reigned, scorching light evaporating all moisture, the air thick with sulfur and the smell of char.
The barren land was covered in red-hot sand and jagged, blackened rocks, with smoking volcanoes rising and falling like festering sores, ready to spew world-destroying lava.
The temperature was so extreme it could melt steel with ease.
This region was called the Blazing Sun Realm by the native beings.
In stark contrast, the other half was eternally steeped in the ghostly light of the water elemental plane’s projection.
Here, perpetual night prevailed, with only snow and ice, pierced by bone-chilling winds.
Heavy snow fell ceaselessly, painting the world pure white, while howling gales froze all living things.
Aside from rare plants glowing faintly in crevices, there was no light.
This was known as the Frost-Dark Realm.
Between these two extreme worlds lay a massive, ancient mountain range, like a scar.
Not formed of ordinary rock, it was a crystalline and mineral vein born from the violent clash and fusion of two elemental energies, permeated by a wild, chaotic energy field.
Only a few specially evolved creatures dared venture there.
This range was the natural divide between the Blazing Sun Realm and the Frost-Dark Realm, a buffer between two extreme civilizations.
In such a unique plane, two vastly different intelligent races naturally emerged.
The rulers of the Blazing Sun Realm were colossal lava giants.
Their bodies were formed of flowing molten cores and solid volcanic rock, their skin a molten red, radiating intense heat, their eyes like blazing volcanoes.
Immensely strong, they could lift hundreds of tons of rock with ease, innately immune to fire and heat.
Their civilization was built around volcanoes, feeding on lava, drawing power from flames.
The rulers of the Frost-Dark Realm were snow-beast creatures, covered in long, frost-white fur, their lower halves equine, their upper halves bear-like.
Robust and powerful, they trod snow without a trace, with sharp canine ears and explosive bear-like arms.
Adapted to extreme cold, they absorbed ice elemental power and could even consume darkness.
Their civilization thrived deep in glaciers, dwelling in vast ice caves or castles carved from snow, feeding on frozen creatures, drawing power from ice.
Lava giants and snow-beasts, two vastly different yet equally formidable races, had existed on the Flame-Frost Plane for countless years.
Mutually antagonistic, they had fought for dominion since their inception.
Brutal wars raged near the boundary mountains for eons, blood and fire, ice and wails weaving the Flame-Frost Plane’s main theme.
Yet, despite endless conflict, neither side could truly defeat the other.
The reason was simple—neither could adapt to the other’s environment.
Lava giants, leaving the Blazing Sun Realm’s heat, cooled and slowed.
Snow-beasts entering the Blazing Sun Realm suffered from the extreme heat, their vitality rapidly draining.
This made their wars, however fierce, confined to the boundary mountains, unable to strike at each other’s core territories.
This stalemate persisted until now.
At this moment, in the heart of the Blazing Sun Realm, atop a ten-thousand-zhang volcano surrounded by endless lava, a palace echoed with gurgling bubbles.
Scorching steam filled the hall, forming distorted illusions.
At its core, a molten pool—private to the lava giant king—reached thousands of degrees, capable of melting metal instantly.
A lava giant over ten meters tall lounged within, treating the molten pool as a soothing hot spring.
Molten lava flowed over him, nourishing his body, emitting pleasing sizzling sounds.
His eyes closed, he reveled in ultimate comfort and power.
He was Karamos, king of the Blazing Sun Realm, a mighty sixth-tier being commanding millions of lava giant legions.
Suddenly, urgent, thunderous footsteps shattered the tranquility.
A guard lava giant stormed into the private palace, radiating anxious heat waves.
“My King! A celestial anomaly!” The guard’s booming roar carried uncontainable fear.
Karamos slowly opened his eyes, two fiery gazes piercing the guard. His voice rumbled like a volcano before eruption. “What’s all this noise about?”
“My King! The sky… the sky is torn!” The guard trembled, pointing above the palace. “A massive black rift! We observed… in its center, a round yellow rock!”
Due to distance, the guard couldn’t gauge the ship-plane’s size, mistaking its projection for a rock.
To him, it was as if a colossal black eye had appeared in the sky, with the yellow rock as its pupil, staring at their world!
“What nonsense is this?”
Karamos’s face twisted with irritation.
He stood abruptly, lava cascading off him, splashing the floor with hissing screeches, coating the palace ground.
Unable to tolerate his guard’s incoherent words, Karamos decided to see for himself.
With a wave, he blasted open the palace’s ceiling. Amid falling stones and lava rain, his massive form shot skyward, exposed to the Blazing Sun Realm’s searing canopy.
His molten eyes locked onto the black “eye” in the sky described by his guard.
The spatial rift was indeed enormous, spanning half the sky, though the “ship” plane at its center seemed smaller.
It blocked part of the scorching light, casting a shadow below.
Karamos was shocked to find the rift and its central “eyeball” rock were even larger than the sun eternally hanging in their sky!
Such a phenomenon, unseen in tens of thousands of years!
A unprecedented sense of crisis surged in Karamos’s heart.
“Seer! Now! To me!” His roar echoed across the Blazing Sun Realm.
Soon, his chief seer, a frail lava giant with ancient runes on his skin, arrived trembling under guard escort.
He pressed his molten hand to the king’s chest, closing his eyes to sense the celestial anomaly.
Moments later, the seer’s eyes snapped open, filled with terror.
“My… My King!” His voice, old and trembling, quavered. “The ancient prophecy… it’s true. In days… enemies will descend from the sky… they will tear our world apart!”
“Enemies?!” Karamos’s rage flared.
His first thought was his eternal foes, the “white-furred freaks” of the Frost-Dark Realm!
Those icy creatures had schemed to erode the Blazing Sun Realm for eons.
“It must be those damned white-furred freaks! They’re using this trick to ambush our world from above!” Karamos roared.
Lava poured from him, dripping with his fury.
Without hesitation, his massive frame shuddered, and he issued an urgent command: “My order! Summon all legions! Prepare for battle! Assemble at the boundary mountains! We’ll burn these sky-sneaking white-furred freaks to ashes!”
Meanwhile, in the Frost-Dark Realm, shrouded in eternal night, the same earth-shaking anomaly was noticed.
Deep within a massive glacier, at the core of the grand Ice Crystal Court, in a lake carved from eternal ice, the great “Snow-Beast King” Agron received the same news from his guards.
Unsurprisingly, he reacted as Karamos had.
“Summon all clan warriors! Assemble the legions!” Agron’s roar echoed through the glacier, triggering avalanche-like rumbles. “Prepare for battle! We’ll bury these sky-invading rocks forever in our ice and snow!”
Thus, in complete ignorance, the two ancient enemies of the Flame-Frost Plane—Karamos, king of the lava giants, and Agron, king of the snow-beasts—mobilized their vast armies, preparing for the imminent war.