It was a success.

Vivian raised her arm to block the violent shockwave.

She watched as thousands upon thousands of animals had their bodies completely vaporized.

As Qonvale requested, a completely restrained beast of the Blood Moon was brought back. A general from the Dwarven Kingdom and his trusted squadrons were the ones who brought it back. A lot of them died in the process, but the task was completed.

And with the war bears they brought, they pulled the crimson wolf to the heart of a prepared pit.

Inside, there are thousands of mutated animals and a few Order Beasts.

All of them are restrained or crippled, ready to be sacrificed.

Entrapping the crimson wolf with the mutated animals and Order Beasts is the only way they can force the crimson wolf to kill the entire sacrificial lambs. It would take time, but it’s better than nothing. But someone decided to help—the Witch of Chaos.

She emerged from the Humming Damned Forest and placed a hex on the crimson wolf.

A hex that would push its anger to greater heights until it self-imploded.

And that was the source of the shockwave that slammed against everyone in the area like a train.

Once the blast subsided, Vivian rushed to the pit’s edge and was greeted by a gory sight. Every mutated animal, every Order Beast within, had been reduced to visceral ruin. Nothing remained but gore. Their carcasses steamed with a faint, sizzling energy that curled upward like heat from a fresh slaughter.

"Vivian!" Jarvald emerged from the treeline and approached. "At least a thousand of them nearby!"

Almost instantly, Vivian snapped to Qonvale.

She was asking whether it worked or not with her gaze alone.

"Just wait," Qonvale looked up. "Any second now."

And true to her words, the seething energy coming from the carcass sparked something in the sky. An enormous presence that appeared out of nowhere. For such a power to emerge, space should’ve cracked open, but it didn’t.

Almost like this enormous energy was seamless, compatible with the world.

A blinding beam of light descended from above.

It lit up the entire forest, forcing everyone inside that forest to look down to avoid going blind.

Vivian, too, stood bathed in the light. She was exhilarated. This was it—the world’s energy. Her gaze stayed fixated on the heart of the pit, and she saw a reaction happening there, from the very spot where the crimson wolf had occupied before its implosion.

It was assessing what had transpired with its domain, seeking the cause behind the sudden, en masse death of its inhabitants. As the living consciousness of the land, it could sense every being that dwelt upon it.

But the one who had slaughtered these mutated animals and Order Beasts was unfamiliar.

Understanding dawned in the light, and with it came a terrible brilliance.

"Erghk...!" Vivian grunted as the beam of light intensified, flaring white-hot.

And then, it shot upward in a searching pillar aimed directly at the Blood Moon. Directly at the root of the trouble that had been choked the night in place. Vivian lifted her head and stared at the light beam with hopeful eyes.

Gelmar, not too far away, also stared.

His eyes were bleeding from the scorching light, but he couldn’t look away.

’Every force the empire can muster is spent. If the horde presses on—nothing stands between them and the capital but the Witch of Chaos and what soldiers remain inside it," His hands clenched so hard until his knuckles blanched bone-white—as though sheer pressure alone could expel the Blood Moon from the sky. ’This is our world. Our realm. Please—let this night end!’

Kaboom—!

An explosion enveloped the sky like a blooming flower of light.

For a second, the entire night sky was covered by the world’s energy as if day had finally come.

And the silhouette of every tree, mountain, and living being stood branded against the burning sky.

Then, the ground quaked. It rolled through stone and soil alike, throwing people to their knees, cracking the earth like old bone. The sound followed behind late, a delayed calamity, arriving not as mere sound but also as a physical pressure that pushed the breath back down the throat.

Soon, the true blast wave hit.

Crack—!

Almost instantly, the forest bent to its will—ancient trees were peeled from the ground and flung like kindling, while roots clawed at the air in helpless confusion. Across the firmament, the space tears that had bled crimson for hours began to shudder.

One by one, they collapsed on themselves, edges stitched themselves shut.

But it was the great wound that held every gaze; the splitting scar that had cradled the Blood Moon. It was the rent that had mocked the world’s authority with its presence earlier. It began to close, sucking in the energy it emanated.

Slowly, it gathered tight across the crimson orb, erasing it from the sky like a closing eyelid.

Behind it, the Blood Moon flickered and dimmed. Its baleful light bled away, retreating from the world inch by inch, until all that remained was a fading stain. Qonval’e’s method worked perfectly. Even though they were facing higher beings, they managed to protect their world.

"Get out of here, bastards!"

"This our world!"

"Yeah! Long live the empire!"

Cheers erupted across the entire area. Soldiers from different races raised their weapons, exhaling their pent-up emotions. So many marched out expecting to face horrors from a higher dimension—steeled to lay down their lives in defense of the empire.

Prepared to fight an impossible battle.

But fortune and the empire’s unbreakable spirit had carried them through.

Now, the calamity had passed, and it had taken no more than it already had.

It was a total victory.

But their cheers came prematurely.

Roar—!

A thunderous roar exploded in the distance, one that didn’t seem to belong to this world.

Gelmar snapped his gaze toward Jarvald, seeing that an Awakened had reported to him something.

"What is it?!" He asked. "What made that roar?!"

"It’s the crimson wolves that had entered the forest!" Jarvald roared back.

He immediately rallied the forces.

"Hold a little bit longer!" Qonvale roared from the flank—her voice cut through the chaos. "The world’s energy is overpowering the Blood Moon! Soon, very soon, every creature bound to it will be expelled from this realm. Just endure! A minute, no more!"

"Formation!" Gelmar’s voice thundered.

Every single soldier obeyed the order before the echo died. A single word spawned a thousand perfectly synchronized movements. Red Prudian armor flowed like liquid discipline; each soldier pivoted, locked, and steeled their hearts with the mindless precision of clockwork.

Shields snapped together edge-to-edge with a sound like a great iron door slamming shut.

Heat sizzled instantly along the shield wall.

It was the inherent power within the metal that answered its masters, and the air began to warp and also sizzle, charged with a shimmering curtain of thermal force that blurred the world above. Three ranks deep they stood, a straight light stretched the length of the field, punctuated every fifty soldiers by precise and deliberate gaps.

Kill zones waiting to be sprung. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Rumble—!

Soon, the first sign of the horde appeared in the distance.

Fortune had cleared the field for them. The shockwave from the world’s energy explosion earlier had scoured the land bare—not a single tree remained to obscure the view. So, when the first crimson wolf materialized, they saw it with terrible clarity.

Ferocious. Bloodthirsty.

Its eyes gleamed with the memory of every kill its fangs and claws had ever claimed.

"Plant your shields!"

Clang—!

In unison, the soldiers at the front row planted their shields against the ground.

And the muscles in their bodies tightened, bracing for impact.

But as the first crimson wolf leaped, reaching out their lethal claws at the soldiers, a force stopped it in its tracks. It was suspended mid-air, unable to move forward or backward. It tried moving its legs in order to push the air, yet it stayed in place.

Other crimson wolves who had arrived also suffered the same situation.

All of them were stopped and pulled skyward.

"It’s over..." Qonvale allowed herself a small, relieved smile. "Nothing can sustain their forms in this world any longer. No matter how strong they are, without a higher power to ground them here, they are little more than fading shadows."

"Hah..." Vivian released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, her shoulders sagging. "We survived. Somehow."

Jarvald stepped close and settled a steady hand on her shoulder, drawing her against him.

"Of course we survived," He smiled. "We always survived."

Gelmar stabbed his sword to the ground and allowed his body to relax.

He watched the crimson wolves being pulled skyward, straight toward the dimming Blood Moon.

Relief washed over him as he closed his eyes.

’It was close. Really close...’ He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled it all through his mouth. It was freeing to know that the danger had already passed. ’Even without the emperor, we managed to survive. But the scale of the damage...’

Only at this moment did Gelmar really understand what Rex’s presence carried.

Peace can only prevail as long as he is around.

As long as he was around, there were not many casualties.

It was clear that without him, the empire and the peace it protects wouldn’t be able to survive.

Gelmar opened his eyes again with a smile on his face as he listened to the cheers of the people around him, but his eyes dilated when he saw something. The crimson wolves in the sky, they were slamming into a giant crimson wolf.

And before long, the giant crimson wolf had already swallowed every single one of them.

It opened its maw, and a miniature Blood Moon began to form.

"Hey..." Gelmar drew his blade from the ground. "INCOMING!!"

BOOM—!

Gelmar’s eyes flew wide. A crimson ring splashed across the sky like a demonic boom, a wound torn open in the heavens. And from its center, a sphere of blood shot forth—hurled like a bullet, cutting the air with the ferocity of a meteor.

It streaked faster than thought, faster than any mind could form the thought of intercepting it.

Its path was unerring, and the end of the terrible arc lay Dargena City.

Fear and dread seized every single person as their eyes watched the destruction of the capital city.

Rotating above the city, the first layer of defense surged forth, intercepting the sphere of blood. It met the projectile head-on and shattered instantly. The barrier came next, blocking the incoming destruction of the capital city, but cracks immediately formed, spiderwebbing outward in a violent bloom.

A figure standing on top of the castle watched this with its reptilian eyes.

Flames kindled deep in Ryze’s throat, and he spat them across the head of his massive hammer, suffusing it with draconic energy. The others had been tasked with stopping a calamity from reaching the capital. The fact that this sphere of blood now streaked toward Dargena City told him everything.

That they had failed, which meant it was now up to him to stop this.

Ryze charged his body with more and more energy, drowning himself in deep-red flames.

He blazed like an erupting volcano, spewing molten flame skyward. When the fire within him crested, he seized the war hammer’s haft with both hands—draconic wings erupting from his back. He leapt down from the rooftop.

And he landed squarely atop a massive club of a Cyclop. Ugrok’s club.

Ugrok swung his club against Ryze’s feet and launched him straight at the sphere of blood.

Inside the castle, a frail and pale woman—vampire opened her heavy eyelids.

Heat seeped into the room, and her bat wings twitched at her waist—flapping in quick, urgent beats, a warning she didn’t yet understand. With a soft, weary moan, she pushed herself upright and moved toward the window.

It was only then that the vampire saw the spectacle.

Calidora’s vampiric eyes widened as they reflected an incoming sphere of blood heading straight at her.