"What?" Tyler blinked.

Suddenly, the entire capital city came alive. Ignisar channeled his absolute territorial authority, pumping astronomical amounts of DP directly into the foundation of his kingdom. The towering golden spires began to physically move.

Massive, hyper-dense walls of sandstone erupted from the streets, grinding against each other with deafening roars. The layout of the entire city fractured into colossal, concentric rings that rotated in opposite directions, like the inner workings of a massive, granular puzzle box.

"The ground is moving!" Jessica shrieked, as a sudden updraft of violent sand forcefully dragged her down from the sky.

"Stay together!" Brandon roared, reaching for her hand.

But Ignisar’s control over the environment was absolute. A wall of solid obsidian, fifty feet thick, violently erupted between Brandon and Jessica, launching them into completely different sectors of the shifting city.

Tyler tried to fly upward, but the golden spires around him rapidly extended, forming a towering, enclosed dome of indestructible bedrock that trapped him in the central plaza.

Ashley was swallowed by a collapsing courtyard, sliding into a deep, subterranean labyrinth of shifting stone corridors.

Up in the sanctuary, Red watched the four radiant dots on his grid violently scatter. They were forcefully separated, trapped in isolated sectors of the grinding, ever-changing city.

Red leaned back and let out a low whistle.

’He divided them flawlessly,’ Red realized, genuine respect forming in his mind. ’He recognized their synergy and used the terrain itself to isolate the targets. Ignisar is absolutely sandbagging his Rank 22 status. His tactical awareness and territorial manipulation are top-tier. He is a predator playing the long game.’

[ The vermin are separated, Rubedo, ] Ignisar’s voice rumbled through the console. [ I cannot kill them directly for obvious reasons, but I have built the arenas. Your pieces are arriving. ]

Deep beneath the shifting city, the underground highway finally terminated. The stone wall in front of the Vanguard forcefully ground open, revealing four separate, spiraling staircases leading up into the newly formed labyrinth.

"The Sand God shifted the board," Iron-Scale announced, his draconic eyes glowing in the dark tunnel. He looked at his fellow commanders. Their newly evolved, Ley-Crystal-infused cores hummed with raw power. "The targets are isolated above us."

Krax slammed his greataxe against his chest plate, the violet crystal sparking violently. "Point me to the one who dropped the acid."

Gulag cracked her knuckles, the ambient stone around her rippling under her control. Syra simply melted into the shadows, eager to test her solid darkness against the golden armor of the Earthlings.

The Vanguard commanders split up, each taking a separate staircase to hunt down a Herald trapped in Ignisar’s maze.

At the base of the four spiraling staircases, Iron-Scale raised his hand, bringing the massive subterranean column of the Vanguard to a halt. The draconic Kobold looked back at the hundreds of thousands of troops crowding the ancient highway.

"Torix, Sir Garen," Iron-Scale commanded, his voice carrying down the line. "Take the main legion up the central ramps. Reinforce the natives, secure the inner city, and establish a defensive perimeter. If the labyrinth shifts and drops an enemy into your sector, overwhelm them with numbers."

The six-eyed Arachne clattered his mandibles in agreement, while the Kingdom Knight drew his broadsword.

"The targets above are domain-class," Iron-Scale continued, turning back to the other three Vanguard commanders. "We do not march an entire army into a bottleneck to be slaughtered by area-of-effect magic. We take specialized strike teams."

Each commander rapidly selected fifty of the absolute best elites from across the coalition.

Krax pulled fifty Blood-Mane berserkers and heavily armored Minotaurs, who were the warriors who relied on pure physical devastation.

Syra handpicked fifty Deep-Weave stealth units and native desert assassins, shadows that could slip through the cracks of reality.

Gulag gathered fifty Mud-Skipper alchemists and Earth-Weaver mystics to manipulate the environment.

Iron-Scale took fifty veteran Kingdom Knights and winged Harpy scouts to dominate the airspace.

"The Sand God built the cages," Iron-Scale said, his emerald core pulsing through his chest plate. "Break what is inside them."

The four commanders split, leading their elite squads up the spiraling stone staircases.

Up in the sanctuary, Red watched the tactical deployment on the grid. Ignisar’s labyrinth had perfectly isolated the four radiant signatures.

’Matchups dictate the victor in a clash of authorities,’ Red calculated, projecting the telemetry of the four distinct battle zones.

In the eastern sector, the shifting walls had trapped Brandon in a massive, enclosed sandstone courtyard. The Earthling’s red aura boiled the air around him, melting the stone beneath his boots into bubbling magma.

He commanded volatile heat.

Iron-Scale and his winged Harpies breached the courtyard from the upper balconies.

Red watched the simulation run. ’Wind feeds fire, but Iron-Scale’s evolved core generates absolute vacuums. He can suffocate the flames and rip the oxygen straight out of the Herald’s lungs.’

In the western sector, Ashley found herself locked in a deep, subterranean colosseum. Crackling rings of blue, hyper-dense arcane lightning lashed out from her armor, shattering the surrounding pillars. She commanded kinetic electricity.

Gulag and her earth-mystics emerged from the floor directly beneath her.

’Lightning seeks the path of least resistance. Gulag’s evolved obsidian is an absolute insulator. She completely grounds the Herald’s electrical output.’

In the northern sector, Jessica floated nervously in a mirrored hall of polished quartz. Her soothing pink aura pulsed rapidly, ready to mend any physical damage.

She possessed absolute regeneration.

Syra and her silent assassins slipped from the shadows of the quartz itself.

’Healing magic is useless if the brain is instantly severed from the spine. Syra’s solid darkness will bypass the regeneration entirely.’

And in the central plaza, enclosed by a towering dome of indestructible bedrock, Tyler paced furiously. His hands sparked with corrosive green acid. He had already tried melting the walls, but Ignisar’s continuous DP infusion regenerated the stone faster than the acid could eat it.

"Let me out of this primitive trap!" Tyler screamed, hurling a wave of sludge at the sealed gates.

However, the stone doors did not melt. Instead, they violently shattered inward.

A massive, plated boot stepped through the settling dust. Krax walked into the central plaza, resting the handle of his colossal greataxe against his shoulder.

Behind him, fifty towering Blood-Mane Orcs and Minotaurs filed into the arena, their weapons drawn and their eyes locked on the golden-armored Earthling.

Tyler stopped pacing. He looked at the beastmen and let out a sharp, arrogant laugh. "So the King’s pets finally crawled out of the dirt. Are you supposed to be my executioners?"

Krax didn’t offer a monologue. He simply looked at the massive crater of melted sludge back in the dunes where the Vanguard had almost been wiped out.

The Orc general gripped his weapon with both hands. The violet Ley-Crystal embedded in the iron socket flared to life, coating the massive blade in a crackling aura of destructive, hyper-condensed mana.

"You ruined good armor with that rain," Krax rumbled, his voice low and devoid of mercy.

Tyler sneered, raising both hands to conjure a swirling vortex of lethal green acid. "I’ll melt your bones to paste!"

Krax slammed his boot against the stone floor, fracturing the bedrock. He didn’t bother dodging. He launched his massive frame straight into the air, bringing the violet-charged great axe down with cataclysmic force.

"In theory, they have means to win against the heralds. But there is a huge difference in their powers. The heralds are wielding divinity. It’s similar to being a Demi-god. However, they lack experience."

Red bought some food and drink from the Kitchen.

"Let’s see what happens."