After standing there for a long time while the horrifying roars continued echoing across the darkened lands, King Garrie finally realized that he could not remain frozen like this any longer.

Fear still gripped his chest tightly. Every instinct inside him wanted to keep staring at those colossal creatures towering beyond the horizon because his mind still struggled to fully accept that such abominations truly existed.

But he was the king of Leonora. If he stopped moving now then everyone behind these walls would lose themselves to panic completely.

No matter how much fear tried to freeze him in place, he had to act and give order. That was his role.

King Garrie slowly turned away from the battlement edge before walking toward the communication mages nearby.

The surrounding knights and soldiers immediately watched him carefully as he approached.

The king stopped beside the mage responsible for long-range spirit communication.

"Any information from the other kingdoms?" King Garrie asked directly.

The mage’s face immediately darkened further. He slowly shook his head.

"No, Your Majesty," he answered heavily. "Communication remains down. Our spirits can’t connect to one another anymore. We’ve become isolated from the other kingdoms."

Several nearby mages and knights who overheard the conversation immediately exchanged alarmed looks. One knight unconsciously tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword. A mage looked toward the distant towering creatures with pale face.

The reality slowly became clearer. Not only were gigantic abominations rising from beneath the kingdom lands, but Leonora had also lost contact with the other kingdoms completely.

King Garrie released a slow heavy breath. Then he lifted his gaze toward the distant horizon once more.

The five colossal serpentine creatures still towered high above the forests and mountains while their twisted flesh writhed endlessly beneath the cloudy skies. But after several moments, the horrifying roars slowly began weakening.

The sounds became lower and less frequent than before. King Garrie’s expression darkened slightly. The scouts were probably already dead. The thought stabbed sharply into his chest.

Those scouts had obeyed his orders without hesitation and ventured into the wilderness despite the danger. Now they had most likely died somewhere beneath those monstrous creatures.

King Garrie silently gritted his teeth hard again while suppressing the grief trying to rise inside him. There was no time for mourning now.

He immediately turned back toward the battlement mages.

"Construct the strongest barrier possible around the walls," King Garrie ordered firmly. "We cannot allow those creatures to enter the city."

The mages immediately straightened.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The battlement mages quickly began moving. Several of them immediately activated large-scale Magic formations across the walls while others rushed toward the defensive pillars positioned throughout Leonora’s battlements.

Bright streams of Magic soon illuminated sections of the wall while enormous defensive runes gradually emerged across the stone structures.

Meanwhile, King Garrie continued walking across the battlements. Several knight captains quickly approached him the moment they saw him coming.

The king stopped before them while the violent wind continued sweeping across the walls around them.

"Prepare yourselves for whatever happens next," King Garrie ordered heavily.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the captains answered immediately.

King Garrie looked toward the distant colossal creatures again before continuing. "These creatures appear far stronger than anything we’ve fought before. But we cannot allow them to enter the city."

The knight captains immediately nodded with grim expressions.

"Go."

Without wasting another second, the captains immediately turned and hurried back toward their respective knight squads.

Preparations for the coming disaster rapidly spread throughout the walls of Leonora.

—

Far away from Leonora, the five expedition groups continued forcing their way across the corrupted world under the guidance of the four Dragonborns.

After realizing how unstable the corruption had become, Erend, Eccar, Aesa, and Sylven had immediately urged every expedition group to increase their pace. Since then, the entire atmosphere among the expeditions had changed completely.

Nobody complained anymore.

The scholars, knights, and mages traveling with the expeditions could all feel it already. The corruption spreading throughout the land no longer resembled the earlier corruption zones they had encountered before. The air now carried growing pressure while the skies continuously darkened above them.

Even the terrain looked increasingly distorted the deeper they traveled toward the fragment locations.

Because of that, all five expedition groups pushed themselves harder despite exhaustion slowly building throughout their bodies.

Meanwhile, Erend continuously controlled his clones across the different expedition routes simultaneously.

Unlike Eccar, Aesa, or Sylven who only needed to focus on protecting the groups physically near them, Erend constantly divided his concentration between multiple locations at once. His clones traveled together with the other expeditions while transmitting information directly back to him continuously.

The energy expenditure was enormous.

Sweat had already formed across Erend’s forehead several times throughout the journey while faint strain occasionally appeared across his face whenever multiple groups encountered corrupted zones simultaneously.

Maintaining a Dragonborn clone over such vast distances while continuously sharing senses and awareness consumed his energy far faster than the others.

But Erend never complained.

He understood very well that this was necessary. Only he could do something like this. Without the clones, the fifth expedition group would be traveling nearly blind through the corrupted lands.

So he endured it silently.

Hours continued passing afterward while the five expeditions gradually approached the fragment locations.

The first expedition group led directly by Erend had already crossed into a massive canyon region filled with blackened stone cliffs and corrupted rivers glowing crimson beneath the dark skies. Strange pulsating roots spread throughout the canyon walls while distant roars occasionally echoed from somewhere deep below the ravines.

The fragment location was no longer far ahead.

Meanwhile, Eccar’s group had reached an enormous dead forest where gigantic pale trees stretched endlessly toward the horizon. None of the trees possessed leaves anymore. Instead, flesh-like growths wrapped around the trunks while dark mist drifted thickly between the forest paths.

The expedition members traveling with Eccar remained visibly tense because they continuously felt movement surrounding them deep within the fog.

Aesa guided another expedition group through the ruins of an ancient abandoned city partially swallowed by the corruption. Broken towers leaned close to the ground while crimson vines crawled across streets and destroyed statues.

Occasionally, strange distorted whispers echoed between the empty structures as if something hidden watched them from the ruins.

Sylven’s expedition group had already reached a mountainous region where the corruption spread across the land. Crimson-black veins stretched throughout the terrain while violent winds continuously howled across the cliffs.

The scholars traveling with Sylven struggled to maintain their footing because the mountains occasionally trembled beneath them for unknown reasons.

Finally, the fifth expedition group moving under the protection of Erend’s clone had entered a massive swamp region where corrupted water reflected the dark skies like black mirrors. Giant skeletal remains of unknown creatures protruded throughout the marshlands while bubbles of crimson energy continuously rose from beneath the stagnant water.

All five groups had nearly reached their respective fragment locations now.

But the closer they became, the heavier the atmosphere surrounding the world itself seemed to grow.

—