The horrifying roar from the colossal creature spread out across the valley. A visible shockwave exploded from its enormous body and tore through the surrounding wilderness with terrifying force.

Trees bent violently from the pressure while countless branches snapped apart instantly. Tall grasses and vegetation flattened against the ground as the sound wave swept across the land.

The scouts running through the forest suddenly felt the impact hit them.

BOOOOMMM!!!

The force crashed into their bodies hard enough to throw every single one of them forward. Several scouts slammed violently against the ground and rolled across dirt and roots with painful groans.

"Aghhh!"

"My ears—!"

One of the scouts clutched the side of his head while blood slowly dripped from his ear after the overwhelming sound ruptured something inside.

Another scout struggled to breathe properly after smashing against a tree trunk.

The squad leader himself crashed against the ground shoulder-first before immediately forcing himself back up despite the sharp pain shooting through his body. His hearing still rang violently from the roar but he ignored it completely.

He quickly grabbed one of the fallen scouts and pulled him up roughly.

"We don’t have time!" the leader shouted loudly over the roaring chaos around them. "We have to move. Now!"

The scouts staggered back onto their feet while fighting through dizziness and pain.

The squad leader knew very well that his squad was already injured and terrified. But there was no time left to care about pain anymore.

That creature was enormous beyond reason. If it truly decided to chase them then something that large could probably cross the valley and reach them within seconds.

Which meant only one thing mattered now. Run.

The creature behind them continued rising higher into the sky.

Its gigantic serpentine body extended endlessly upward from the fissures like a colossal pillar of crimson flesh erupting from beneath the world. Countless melted beast bodies writhed across its surface continuously while corrupted blood-colored energy pulsed through the enormous body.

Within only several seconds, the abomination had already reached hundreds of meters above the ground. It towered over the valley like some ancient nightmare awakened from below the earth.

And still it kept rising. Its horrifying roar continued shaking the surrounding lands repeatedly.

Then one of the scouts suddenly felt something strange beneath his feet while running.

The ground moved very subtly, but it was unmistakable. Something beneath the soil was also crawling underneath them.

The scout’s eyes widened instantly. Panic surged through him immediately. He wanted to warn the others but the chaos around them had already become overwhelming. They were sprinting desperately while the enormous creature behind them roared endlessly into the sky. There was no time.

Or rather... he felt there was no time left to explain anything anymore.

The same thing had already begun happening elsewhere.

Far away across different parts of the kingdom lands, three other colossal creatures also erupted from beneath the fissures, in the spots where the other squad of scouts were also conducting their search. Gigantic crimson flesh towers burst upward toward the sky while horrifying roars echoed across forests, mountains, and abandoned villages simultaneously.

The entire kingdom region trembled violently. But the nightmare did not stop there. Because there were not only three creatures. Two more gigantic abominations emerged from entirely different locations.

That horrifying truth meant one thing: there had been five fissures hiding these creatures beneath the kingdom all along.

Five colossal abominations now rose toward the skies like living pillars of corruption spreading across the lands surrounding Leonora.

Meanwhile, the three scout squads continued desperately trying to escape through forests and valleys while terror completely consumed them.

But then something happened that none of them expected.

From beneath the ground directly under their feet, smaller creatures suddenly exploded from the soil.

"AHHHHH!"

The screams of the scouts immediately echoed throughout the wilderness.

Grotesque flesh-colored tendrils and malformed corrupted creatures burst from below and wrapped around their legs and bodies instantly. Some resembled half-formed beasts fused together while others looked like masses of claws and teeth writhing without proper shape.

One scout was dragged violently into the ground before he could even finish screaming. Another one of the scouts slashed desperately at the tendrils wrapping around his waist while panic filled his face. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The forest erupted into chaos.

Screams of pain and fear echoed everywhere while the horrifying roars of the gigantic creatures above drowned the entire kingdom lands in terror.

—

King Garrie stood at the edge of the battlements together with the surrounding knights, archers, and mages while the horrifying roars continued echoing across the kingdom lands endlessly. The sound no longer resembled the roar of ordinary monsters but sounded closer to gigantic war horns announcing the end of everything.

Each roar spread through the dark skies with enough force to make the walls beneath their feet tremble. The vibrations traveled across the air continuously while the storm clouds above Leonora churned harder than before.

Every person atop the battlements stared with widened eyes. Far beyond the forests and distant hills surrounding the kingdom, five enormous crimson-black tendrils towered into the heavens.

No. Not tendrils. They were creatures. Massive living abominations stretching hundreds of meters into the sky while their twisted flesh continuously writhed and shifted unnaturally. Even from this distance they could still see grotesque shapes moving across the creatures’ enormous bodies.

The sight made several soldiers pale immediately. One of the younger archers quietly stepped backward with shaking legs.

"What... what are those things?" he whispered. Nobody answered him at first. Then one of the battlement mages finally spoke with a trembling voice while staring toward the distant towering creatures.

"The monsters..." His lips shook slightly. "They evolved."

Silence immediately followed those words.

Another soldier gripped the battlement edge tightly while cold sweat rolled down his face. "We’re doomed," he muttered weakly. "We’re really doomed..."

"How are we supposed to fight something like that?" another knight asked with strained voice. "The Dragonborns aren’t even here. They’re still escorting the expeditions."

That realization spread even more fear through the battlements. Murmurs immediately erupted among the soldiers and mages surrounding the king.

"What do we do now?"

"Those things are gigantic..."

"They’re heading toward the kingdom, aren’t they?"

"We can’t survive this..."

The atmosphere atop the walls slowly descended closer toward panic. Even the veteran knights struggled to keep their composure while staring at the five colossal abominations dominating the horizon like living towers of corruption.

Meanwhile, King Garrie remained standing silently at the very front of the battlements. The cold wind blew heavily against his cloak while his eyes remained locked onto the monstrous creatures in the distance.

His brows furrowed deeply. His jaw tightened so hard that pain slowly spread across his face.

This truly was another disaster, and unlike before, this one felt even worse. The earlier corrupted beast attacks at least still resembled something familiar. Monsters could be fought. Armies understood monsters.

But these things... These creatures looked more like living catastrophes than normal beasts.

King Garrie felt fear slowly creeping deeper into his heart while staring at them. Not only fear for himself. Fear for Leonora, for his people. Fear that everything standing behind these walls might soon disappear beneath those towering abominations.

—