The Martial Unity

He wasn't kidding when he said the name was fitting. The Valley of Prisms was a region where the optical density of the air was not consistent, causing light to bend midair, turning in different directions.

Almost as though the atmosphere was a collection of prisms.

Hence the name of the region.

"Man…" Kane murmured. "Just looking at this place is giving me a headache."

"So this is where the Divine Doctor entered the Beast Domain," Rui remarked, turning back as he glanced towards the Human Domain in the distance. He could see that as the alien-like flora began to grow scarce and peter out into barren land, traces of the touch of humanity could be seen at the horizon.

He turned back and faced the Valley of Prisms with a deep breath. "Let's get going. I'm sure that we'll find some clues."

Rui surged forward intently. Yet it was hard to hide his nervousness. This was the first juncture in searching for clues for the Divine Doctor. The outcome of this particular investigation would drastically alter Rui's evaluation of the likelihood of success. Thus, he was particularly anxious to find something that could point him in a definitive direction.

The Valley of Prisms was definitely most defined by its eye-drawing characteristic and its highly uneven distribution of optical density. However, it wasn't the only aspect of the region that mattered. The valley was quite large, surrounded by the Hroul Mountain Range.

It had lush greenery with a wide stretch of grass and shrubs and other flora thriving in the fertile soils of the valley, which was glowing vividly in myriad colors. Its fauna seemed surprisingly normal and sane, in a way. He saw herds of herbivorous monsters peacefully grazing on the grass.

It was weird and out of place for a region like the Beast Domain.

amount of area and simultaneously ignore the vision distortion caused by the refraction of the atmosphere. He immediately began scanning the entire region with a zig-zag grid-mapping system, ensuring

before his initial survey was complete, he had already begun to note oddities in the region half a day ago. The fauna surprised Rui even more, for it struck him as imbalanced, as though there were links missing in the food chains of the entire

there were

none that he

his eyes.

catoblepas, a cow-like monster species, grazing on grass openly and intrepidly. It was an odd sight in a domain that was

and steering away from him

a variety of other monsters that

lake in the

size of small buildings within its depths. These were definitely predators

the only predators are in

the rest of the valley. "…most of

set foot on land truly regulate

narrowed its

as reproduction and hunting rates, and in most cases, unless these monsters were extremely aggressive, it was not feasible for the populations of the herbivorous animals to be kept in check by the water predators

the lake is brimming with other fish life," Rui noted. "It begs the question of whether these monsters even hunt land animals that assuage their thirst

with the many streams and rivers running around, Rui found it

of these ecological and environmental oddities were strange and pointed to an incomplete