King Garrie immediately leaped away from the frontline after hearing Velrion’s words. Golden Magic erupted beneath his feet and propelled him upward through the rain-filled air before he landed atop the remains of a damaged watchtower overlooking the city districts below.

The moment he stopped standing in the middle of the battle itself, everything suddenly looked different.

From above, the full scale of the disaster became horrifyingly clear.

Dark cracks had spread across multiple districts like infected veins crawling beneath Leonora. Flesh tendrils erupted endlessly from the fractures while entire sections of the city had already become active battle zones. Some districts were still holding properly while others had nearly collapsed into chaos completely.

King Garrie’s eyes quickly moved from one area to another.

The western district still possessed stable defensive lines. The eastern side was worse. Too many civilians were still trapped there while the defenders kept getting overwhelmed by constant tendril attacks. Meanwhile the central evacuation routes had become dangerously crowded.

And worst of all, the defenders themselves were fighting without coordination.

Some knights had pushed too deep into corrupted areas. Several archer groups lacked protection. Mages were scattered everywhere trying to save civilians without support formations around them.

If this continued, Leonora would collapse from disorganization long before the enemy overwhelmed them directly.

King Garrie slowly clenched his fists. Velrion was right. Down there, he had only been another warrior reacting to the chaos. But from here, he could finally see the battlefield as a whole again.

Immediately, his mind began organizing priorities. First, he needs to stabilize the evacuation routes. Second, divide the city into defensive sectors. Third, prevent the tendrils from isolating districts from each other. Fourth, preserve the mages at all costs because without the evacuation Magic, civilian casualties would skyrocket.

Golden Magic immediately surged around the king again before his amplified voice thundered across the storm-covered city.

"All captains regroup and report positions immediately!"

The defenders below quickly looked upward.

"Archers abandon isolated rooftops and relocate toward central formations!"

"Mages focus only on evacuation and barrier support! Knights will handle direct combat!"

"Seal the eastern streets and redirect civilians toward the northern shelters!"

One command after another rapidly spread across Leonora while King Garrie continued scanning the battlefield beneath the storm with hardened eyes.

The chaos had not disappeared completely of course, but now, the kingdom finally had a king commanding it again.

—

Meanwhile across the other kingdoms, similar scenes were unfolding as well. The rulers of the five kingdoms had all been forced into the exact same position as King Garrie earlier.

Inside Drakenmere, King Valor fought directly across the streets while roaring commands through chaos and collapsing buildings. In Valdros, King Darius personally led heavy knight formations against the spreading flesh roots while simultaneously reorganizing defensive sectors around the fortress districts. Within the sacred forests of Seraphelle, King Sheron moved through collapsing spirit pathways alongside his defenders while desperately coordinating evacuations for spirit mages and civilians. Meanwhile in Elaris, King Seladin directed warriors through sandstorms and corrupted fissures tearing apart the desert city from beneath.

Every kingdom had descended into chaos too quickly.

The kings could no longer remain safely behind walls or command chambers. They had all been dragged directly into the middle of battle while trying desperately to stabilize their collapsing cities.

But eventually, something strange began happening. The flesh tendrils slowly started decreasing.

At first, nobody noticed it clearly because the battles remained too chaotic. But gradually, fewer tendrils emerged from the cracks. The corrupted roots became less aggressive. Some suddenly withdrew back beneath the fractures while others simply stopped moving entirely before decaying into black flesh like matter.

The same thing happened in every kingdom.

The defenders continued fighting cautiously at first, afraid it was some kind of trap. Yet minute after minute, the attacks continued slowing down until eventually the streets no longer swarmed with endless corrupted flesh.

The storms still raged overhead. The cities were still damaged. Fires still burned across districts while screams of injured civilians echoed through ruined streets.

But the assault itself had suddenly stopped.

Inside Leonora, King Garrie still stood inside the upper command tower overlooking the devastated city beneath the rain. His breathing remained heavy while reports continuously arrived from captains throughout the districts.

"They’re retreating."

"The tendrils stopped moving in the eastern sector."

"The northern district has stabilized."

For the first time since the disaster began, the king slowly allowed himself to breathe properly again.

They survived. Barely. But they survived.

King Garrie lowered himself against the wall while exhaustion heavily settled into his body. Beneath the storm outside, Leonora still looked wounded and broken, but at least the kingdom had not fallen.

Then suddenly, a violent surge of Spirit Magic erupted outside the tower.

King Garrie immediately turned.

Archmage Velrion hovered in the air beyond the balcony windows while silver-blue Spirit Magic spiraled violently around him. But unlike earlier, the Archmage’s expression looked far darker now.

"This isn’t over yet, Your Majesty," Velrion said heavily.

King Garrie immediately frowned. "What do you mean?"

Velrion slowly raised one hand toward the city below.

King Garrie followed his gaze.

Then his eyes widened.

Across multiple districts, remnants of corrupted Magic energy from the destroyed flesh tendrils had begun gathering together. Black and red energy flowed across the ruined streets like rivers of corruption converging toward one single location near the center of Leonora.

The energy rapidly condensed. The air was distorted. Then suddenly, the gathered corruption twisted into a gigantic swirling portal radiating horrifying pressure. From within that portal, something massive began moving.

It expanded wider while horrifying noises slowly echoed from within its depths. Wet sounds of flesh twisting together reverberated beneath the dark skies.

Then the creatures finally emerged.

The first body crawled out slowly from the corruption portal while black and red fluid dripped endlessly from its exposed muscles and bones. Its shape resembled a grotesque fusion of human and beast. Multiple animal limbs protruded from its torso while fragments of human faces twitched across parts of its skinless body.

Then more followed behind it.

Some of them possessed wolf-like heads attached to distorted human bodies and other creatures crawled using countless mismatched limbs fused together into grotesque amalgamations of flesh. And none of them had skin.

—