While Ash and his companions began organizing the Velora Kingdom to their liking, the protagonist Kale found himself in his chambers of the Voss Kingdom, a palace that breathed crimson mist and black water with every passing moment.
The walls were polished obsidian veined with scarlet crystal that pulsed like living arteries, and from hidden channels carved into the ceiling, dark waterfalls cascaded in perfect silence, vanishing into unseen grates before they ever touched the floor.
The air itself carried the heavy scent of blood-lotus and deep ocean, thick enough to taste, while crimson lanterns floated overhead, their flames flickering black at the edges. Over the past two months since entering the rankings, Voss had climbed to 9,400.
This shift did not come from Kale or any of the others doing anything extraordinary; it came from the kingdoms above them, for these lower ranked kingdoms were all separated by the smallest of margins.
