Now entering Midnight Mountain for real we reach our 1st area of Midnight Mountain and one of the larger parts space wide.
Coming from the south port and heading north (from the concept art above).

We see a huge desert expanding out in front of us for miles in every direction with some raised mesa's and lower valleys and far off in the distance can be seen the great pyramids of the city and the fact you can see them so clearly just shows how big they are up close, in fact Gremory who is your standard 6ft really gives a sense of scale to the desert, showing how small she is up close to the camera comparted to things like the pyramids and such that will only get bigger when closer.
Looking past the golden glow of the city far in the distance and encompassing the mountains are the even bigger crystal hills and behind them, the main centre pieces of the 3 monolithic peaks that are so big now you are on the island you can barely see there summits as they tower upwards towards the heavens, the giant eternal crescent moon illuminating the landscape below as it hangs above the main middle peak of Midnight Mountain itself.

While not pure gold dust like the like the sands of El Dorado, Midnight still like the finer things and so the sand its extremely fine and soft like the kind you would find inside a hourglass, all nice and warm to the touch as that is one thing you will notice despite the island being cast in a eternal night things like the sand and winds still have a warm temperature unlike a normal desert as if the eternal crescent moon above the island acts a bit like a sun still giving light and warmth despite the dark sky dotted with stars all shining a rainbow of colours like gemstones have been suspended in the air.

"All will know the wonder of my dark and jewelled sky"

For perspective as we begin our journey inwards, going on the path on a perfect line from the beach and port to far inner end of the desert where you will find area 2 of the oasis ring would take around 6 hours on foot, so that's a lot of sand to walk so lets begin.

As we walk towards the the city lets begin with the Flora and environment.
Walking across the desert of the midnight sand we see that for the most part at least, environment wise it is your standard desert.
With sand dunes, slightly valleys and raised mesas, with the same being said for the flora having the typical cacti and a couple of patches of grass here and there and a few silver barked, orange leaved baobab tree rising out of the sand and lastly a few small bushes with the same orange leaves.

Where it dose differ however is with "man made" stuff, If you were following one of the designated guard patrolled paths they would be illuminated by gemstone lanterns, these made by "Darkness" with him saying he learnt it long long ago 5 life times ago in another world, a world rule by dragons that could shape the very fabric of creation, those that could make the ether of the world solid and crafted the magic of the world into amazing and fantastical creations, those that could touch the astral energies of the universe and weave dreams for all of the creatures of the realm, "Darkness" told of a area of the old realm where kangaroo rats could grow gemstones like fruit at witch point the dragons could take the magic found within the elemental forces of the world and imbue these gems with this elemental energy, A energy that could do all kinds of things, one in particular turning the gem extremely clear allowing the elemental energy within to shine brightly as if a fragment of the sun itself had been contained with this small crystal prison.
Obviously both Greed Herself & Midnight were mesmerized by this dragon light that made crystal's shine with a otherworld glow of realm long since forgotten and wanted all the main lights of there islands as Gem Lamps witch "Darkness" did.
So following the guard patrolled road you will find each littered with iron poles that have a icosahedron shaped gem floating on them that shine bright and guild your way to the city.

However deviating from this path into the wilds of the desert we will see a few other things dotted across this moonlit desert the 1st being ruins, broken pillars & obelisks, shattered walls and such, some standing upright other half sunk or mostly sunk into the sands, this is purely aesthetic, this is relatively new island with its base being created by Mammon after Midnight's ascension and then Midnight customizing the island to her liking with a little help from "Darkness" after all who better to be able cast a area into eternal darkness than the very embodiment of darkness itself as well as the gem lamps that only "Darkness" can make having knowledge from the dragons of a another world, well "Darkness" & "The Light" as he did teach his sister how to make them so she can use them to help lost souls.

"thank you "Darkness", I can make a dragon's light to guild them home"

These ruins server no purpose other than they look cool, adding a bit more variety and a air of mystery to this desert with a
"What secrets did these ruins and this island once hold"
vibe even though there is no secrets...well not in the random broken pillars and walls at least.

The one other thing of note is the soul crystals that dot the desert, a common thing that will be seen scattered across all the rings as souls are killed and dissipate to respawn back on the outer edge or close to the arch that now owns them the next day, that release of soul energy, especially if it was a powerful soul will leave behind a bit of residue that tends to gather on a normal rock turning it crystalline all the way though and as the name suggest being filled with soul energy, in most cases these are usually mined by some kind of grunt class and cut up to be used in guard and higher class weapons in our case minded by mummified slaves and used in anubian guard weapons.

Now in terms of inhabitants there is only wildlife to be found here and the occasional merchant moving goods to and from the docks if you are on one of the main roads from one of the ports but mostly wildlife here, wildlife that comes in the form of.

(For more info on any of the wildlife like before see there own pages for full details)

1) Obsidian Scorpions
=======================

Equivalent to there mortal counterparts, there carapace looking like a shiny or polished obsidian and it is actually made from obsidian.
A bit bigger than a normal mortal scorpion these being the size of a large rat, there is nothing much notable about them looks wise aide from there stinger and legs that glow a teal soul colour & there heads that looks slightly off compared to the normal scorpion body.
The head looks like a cracked lump of obsidian, the cracks being the part where the rock splits apart like a mouth and mandibles and its gemstone eyes witch it uses as a lure, as what these scorpions tend to do is bury there entire body into the sands so only the head is visible, now any greedy treasure hungry sinner who happens to see one wont see a scorpion but a nice huge shiny rock with gemstone, tempting them to go over and pick it up as it looks valuable and could sell for quite the nice amount of cursed gold.
The Scorpions even having multiple different gemstone eyes to lure one who might favour one stone over another, like one has emerald eyes another sapphire and so on, all sparkling and glinting in the moonlight.

Meanwhile under the sand there body is now tensed and spring loaded if you will, ready for some greedy idiot to either step on them or as you might guess grab there head in a attempt to pick up the shiny rock either way upon touch activation the "Spring Lock" is trigger and instantly pincers fly out the sand snapping shut around the wrist or foot of whoever triggered it, digging deep in to secure itself and the same time the whole body springing out of the sand and forwards to sting the greedy soul with a soul flame venom.
This venom a bit of a more basic version of Aplistia's most of the time is a one shot, causing a intense excruciating burring inside of them as the hot soul fame venom causes there blood to boil from the heat of the venom, paralyzing the victim and causing them to fall to the floor, now unable to move you see about 10-15 of these scorpions coming out of the sand moving to the victim proceeding to bite chunks out of the flesh with sharp mandibles that being made of obsidian are as sharp as glass and cut though the soft flesh with easy, all eating away as the sinner screams in pain as they are slowly eaten alive.
most of the time this is a sinner who reached the island and dose not no better, but even some that live on Midnight's Mountain will occasionally give into there greed and depending on the soul depends on what happens next.

*) if it was a random as always they will respawn all the way back on the outer edge of the ring, there back gone and reset to Lv1

*) if it was a soul midnight owns being the soul itself is now inside Aplistia and its bound to the island they will spawn and wash up on the beaches of the mountain still with all there power striped and reset to lv1, but interestingly enough after washing up despite being naked for some reason the gold cobra arm band mentioned in area 0 is still on there wrist as if it is now part of there body.

*) if a mummified slave the scorpions wont attack it, as they are now mindless drones to a extent, not able to control what they are doing force to obey orders, and like Aplistia's snakes even the scorpions out rank them, having a low level of telepathy from there hive mind and so they can interact with them to use them for there own end and I say hive mind as sometimes they will not eat the sinful soul, but you will see the other scorpions and the other insect of the scarabs also come, a huge swarms of both carrying the soul off towards a giant ruinous structure where the rulers of these insects live, or should a mummified slave be within the area one scorpion will crawl onto it and can use its hive mind to influence the slave into picking up the body and carry it to the ruins but 1st our 2nd wildlife.

Emerald Scarabs
===================
come one you have seen the movie the Mummy you know what we are about to say in this short description XD,
smaller than the scorpions, the same size as mortal counterparts these scarab's carapace are solid emerald and there legs and mandibles and such solid gold, often found on the random ruin walls and the ruins itself stuck to walls as if they were normal decorations and part of the structure and greedy souls will of course pry them off the walls thinking they are just decorations where upon getting one off it will make a noise and all of them will detach from a wall or come out from hiding swarming the victim and burrowing into them, eating them alive from the inside out. again sometimes taking the paralyzed body to the ruins. But before that our last wildlife.

Snakes
========
coming in 2 varieties of the Egyptian asp and the king cobra, these snakes are directly connected to and server Aplistia.
Acting as scouts in a way they slither round the deserts living there lives but in there eyes they can see who is owned by Midnight and who is not and should some soul land on the island chances are Midnight or at least Aplista already knows and knowing exactly where you are and is keeping tack of you all the time now as Aplistia can see though there eyes at any given time.
As during the creation of the island this was the wildlife that Aplistia directly added all natural at 1st but within the past few years of the islands creation some souls Midnight controls became some of these snakes, they are souls trapped in that form, some willing and some not, with the not so willing usually being them trying to reach the centre of the ring seeing the crystal tower and getting too greedy, captured and now forced to just slither around as Aplistia ordered, the willing being those that worship and are devoted to Aplistia (I mean chubby cobra mom who would not be XD) these willing ones asking to become vessels for this fragment of Midnight's soul and so they do, there soul is already inside Aplistia and like the arch demon she is made from she can change there body into a little serpent that are shipped into the desert where they do as Queen Aplistia's will commands. They wait and watch and alert there cobra mommy of any who dare dock at the island.

most of the time you can tell the difference as the captured are most of the time a asp where as the willing vessels are cobra's a snake worthy to bear a hood for willingly giving themselves to cobra mommy.
All versions of these snakes have the soul flame venom the lower asps having one like the scorpions that makes a person burn as the soul flame boils there blood, But the cobra's having the same soul flame venom as Aplistia herself where not only is it burning for the paralyzing effect but is also poisoning and corroding your soul, preparing you for Queen Aplistia as rather than a meal any victim now paralyzed, being Aplistia can see though there eyes is now known to her and she will send Anubian guards to the location her snakes are to pick up the soul and bring it directly to Midnight's Chambers for the dark star to have her way with and clam for herself.

One other fun fact before getting back to the last area as all details are on there bio pages, when becoming a snake of Aplistia being your body is changing, the willing servants can choose what colour and species of snake they want to be between asp and cobra. red to purple to black and so on with whatever pattern you like
(Aside from a gold cobra with the gemstone pattern that's reversed for the really special)
And what gender if they feel they wish to be the opposite.
One other fact is breeding as there is the natural wild ones, souls in the snake body can talk and act as normal where wild acts on instinct, if a wild breeds a soul the baby would be another wild that is instinct, but if 2 souls breed the baby would be soul of its own that Aplistia would clam when it can speak "my soul is your Queen Aplistia".

ANYWAY BACK TO THE LAST AREA ITSELF.

Deep Ruins
============

There are a few very close to the Oasis ring all connected via underground tunnels that we will come to, these look like ancient temples from long ago, starting to be buried by the sands and show a little wear and tear at least on the outside and outer chambers, Entering them you find yourself in a few run down corridors, sand covering the floors and piling up against the walls as well as leaking from the ceilings above, faded paint, cracked or broken architecture.

However one thing you will notice now you know what they are as you move though these outer halls and rooms you will notice across the floors and walls are a large amount of shiny obsidian rocks all over the floor and nice decorative emerald scarabs across the walls standing out against the faded paint, of course now from above we know they are not treasures but the insects of the desert and they are all congregated here because these ruins act as there main hive, deep deep underground and behind the walls are all there hive areas like the food productions, queen chambers and so on as you progress deeper there could be thousands all around you and you would not even know.

As we venture deeper in, the corridors and rooms things start to become a lot more pristine, mummified slaves (mostly the unwilling ruby) can be seen cleaning the walls and floors, some repainting any faded areas, some seen with a insect or two perched on there body and a few wearing chitin plates as a bit of armour to fit this place as this underground temple is the home of out 1st 2 greater demons, the ones that are classed as the rulers of the desert area, the sisters of the scarab and scorpion queens.
There is a lot to go with them so see there own full bio for more details but a few facts.

*) Like many insect queens they do posses a hive mind like power, able to will any number of there insect to follow any command given just by thinking it and even though there are already regular sized queens that lay eggs and give orders they are still of course out ranked by the greater demons and submit to the hive mind.
with a extra fact on that being that they can add any mummified slave to the hive mind for easy control and commanding for the upkeep of there temple and to be used in combat if need be.

*) these greaters are slightly special in the fact that they are technically not even greedy souls, they are in fact from one ring down from gluttony as during the creation of the mountain and by extension the insect wildlife.
As give she technically became the daughter of Greed that make the other 6 sins her "aunties", witch each giving her a gift to welcome her to the family so to speak.

Mammon (Greed) gave her the island
Sindy (Wrath) gave her the weapons she wields and
Bella (Gluttony) being a insect herself well who better to work on the insect wildlife and as such she offered a rare opportunity to all the more lesser sinners and hell born of her ring with the 2 winners get to be promoted to a greater demon and becoming higher up servants of Midnight with these 2 being said winners.

but moving back and ending of this area.

Due to this hive mind it is very rare you will ever see a guard with in this greater's temple as a swarm of thousands of insects and a few mummies is more than enough to deal with anything that goes down there as once in and the hive is on alert it would be extremely hard to get back to the surface, guards usually only summoned to collect any captives.

Snakes are of course welcome here as being vessels of Aplistia they can be used almost like a phone, the queen cobra seeing and speaking though them allowing the greaters and Aplistia to have a conversation without the need to be there or use a actual phone.

Now reaching the deep deep parts of the ruins we get to the tunnels that connect all the temple structures above together, so no mater what direction your coming from there will be at least one temple close by and as you get close to the main part of the island, down here in the deep hundreds of insects scurrying about the place, there will be rooms of sarcophaguses for the mummified slaves of the greaters for when they are at the end of there cycle and as we reach the deepest point we enter a massive dome shaped room where at the far back stands the thrones of the 2 insect queens.

And that is really about it, being more underground temples in a desert there is not as many desiring features as the other areas as places like the the city have more building, people and the life styles, big elaborate set pieces like the "The Pharaoh's" great pyramid and so on, don't get me wrong the deep ruins are kept in pristine condition and the 2 insects like the other greater demons live luxuriously but given there area is not all that much more than a desert you can really only point out its just a lot of sand and stone structures.

And so we take the back door found within the greaters throne room that leads out of the underground ruins and hive network and it puts us out right on the very end edge of the desert right next to area 2 - The Oasis Ring.