King Garrie could no longer fully suppress the fear showing across his face anymore. Earlier atop the battlements, while countless soldiers and mages watched him constantly, he had forced himself to maintain a firm and fearless expression. He understood very well that the morale of Leonora depended heavily on him. If the king himself appeared shaken then fear would spread across the walls faster than the corruption itself.

But here inside the Archmage Tower with only Velrion present, he no longer needed to hide it completely.

The hardness across his face slowly weakened while visible unease surfaced more clearly. Sweat had already begun forming along his forehead and neck despite the cold atmosphere inside the chamber.

King Garrie slowly looked toward Velrion again.

"What do you do now?" he asked quietly.

Velrion released a long exhausted groan while rubbing the side of his forehead. "I need to send this information to the other Archmages and ask about the situation in the other kingdoms. But I’m not certain they’ll even receive it properly."

The old mage looked toward the unstable floating observation crystal nearby.

"They’re probably already overwhelmed preparing the formulas necessary for rewriting the Sky Anchor."

King Garrie silently gritted his teeth again after hearing that.

"Just try it," he said firmly. "Meanwhile, I’ll continue searching for answers on my side."

Velrion slowly nodded. "Yes."

Without wasting more time, King Garrie immediately stepped back toward the teleportation circle. Several moments later, the glowing formation activated once again and transported him directly back toward the battlements of Leonora.

The moment he reappeared atop the walls, the nearby mages immediately approached him with tense expressions.

"What did the Archmage say, Your Majesty?" one of them asked carefully.

King Garrie remained silent briefly before answering. He no longer intended to hide the truth from them completely.

"Velrion believes we’re about to face a new kind of disaster," the king said heavily.

The surrounding battlements immediately became even quieter.

"This silence..." King Garrie continued while staring toward the dark horizon beyond the walls. "It isn’t a good sign."

Almost immediately after his words finished, the wind outside suddenly grew stronger. The slow cold breeze transformed into violent howling gusts sweeping across the battlements while dark clouds churned heavily above Leonora.

The atmosphere that already felt tense moments ago now became almost suffocating. Several nearby mages unconsciously tightened their grips around their staffs and artifacts while exchanging visibly panicked looks with each other.

Nobody liked hearing confirmation that even the Archmage himself viewed the situation this seriously.

King Garrie quickly turned toward the communication mage afterward.

"Contact the scouts again immediately," he ordered.

The mage nodded quickly before activating the communication spirit once more.

Blue light spread from the spirit while streams of Magic attempted connecting toward the distant scouting squads outside the kingdom.

Several tense seconds passed. Then the mage’s expression slowly changed. His brows tightened. The communication spirit flickered erratically. Static-like interference echoed from the connection repeatedly.

The mage immediately attempted the connection again. But the exact same thing happened.

Finally, he slowly looked toward the king with increasingly worried eyes.

"Your Majesty..."

King Garrie immediately stepped closer. "What is it?"

The mage swallowed nervously. "Something is interfering with the long-range spirit communications."

The words immediately made the surrounding atmosphere freeze.

Several mages nearby instantly looked toward each other with alarmed expressions.

King Garrie’s face darkened almost immediately afterward. Now even spirit communication had begun failing. That realization struck everyone standing atop the battlements heavily because spirit communication was one of the kingdom’s most reliable systems. Interference on this level should not have been possible under normal circumstances.

Which only meant that whatever was spreading beneath the kingdom continued growing worse and it was escalating rapidly.

—

Far away from the other squads, the third scouting group finally emerged from the dense forest and arrived near a wide valley stretching between two enormous rocky hills.

The cold wind swept heavily across the open terrain while dark clouds churned slowly overhead. They also reached the fissure already.

The ground there had also split apart. The massive fissures stretched throughout the valley floor like gigantic wounds carved into the earth. Crimson-black light leaked continuously from the depths below while strange corrupted mist drifted upward from the cracks and spread slowly across the terrain.

The scouts stopped and every single one of them stared toward the fissures with deeply uncertain expressions.

The atmosphere around the valley felt suffocating. Even the air itself carried strange pressure now.

One of the younger scouts quietly swallowed before finally speaking. "What should we do, sir?"

The squad leader remained silent for several moments while staring toward the fissures. Inside his chest, instinct screamed at him to leave immediately. Everything about this place radiated danger.

But eventually, he slowly shook his head.

"We investigate it," he said firmly.

Several scouts immediately looked toward him. "We can’t return empty-handed after finding this."

One of the other scouts frowned afterward while staring toward the massive cracks. "But this looks dangerous."

The squad leader nodded. "I know." His eyes narrowed while observing the pulsating crimson light beneath the earth.

"We must do it carefully. Don’t get too close."

He pointed toward the fissures. "The other squads probably already discovered the strange Magic and the rhythmic pulses beneath the ground. We’ll search for something else."

The scouts exchanged uneasy glances briefly before finally nodding.

They immediately began moving. Some of them cautiously spread around the edges of the valley while examining the rocks and soil surrounding the fissures. Others observed the corrupted mist drifting upward while preparing Magic tools to analyze the energy leaking from below.

Meanwhile, the squad leader himself activated the spirit artifact attached near his waist. Soft wind Magic immediately gathered around his body before lifting him slowly into the air.

The scouts below watched him rise carefully above the fissures while his cloak fluttered heavily beneath the growing wind.

From above, the valley became far more visible.

And then... The squad leader’s eyes suddenly widened. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

His body froze midair. Because from this height, he could finally see the true shape of the fissures. Something was moving under the surface.

—