The Shadow Arachne moved like a phantom.
The three Aura Warriors and the lone Mage never even realized they were dead.
A ripple of darkness passed through the chamber, without any sound or warning.
Then came four soft, wet impacts.
The guards froze mid-conversation, their eyes widening but unable to react.
The Aura Warriors died first. Each was pierced straight through the heart by needle-thin spider legs, limbs sharp and powerful enough to punch through reinforced armor as if it were paper. The punctures were narrow, precise, and filled with blackened mana residue.
As for the Mage, she had no time to cast even a basic barrier.
A slender shadow leg punched cleanly through her skull, splitting the back of her hood as the tip emerged from the other side.
All four bodies collapsed almost in unison, collapsing like puppets whose strings had been severed.
The Arachne withdrew its limbs, crimson eyes gleaming as droplets of blood slid down the razor-like tips.
Its attention shifted to the mana stone pulsing at the center of the chamber.
The crystal glowed with pure blue mana—feeding power through the wall like a living artery.
The Shadow Arachne pressed one clawed hand, saturated with shadow mana, against the stone.
The glow flickered.
Dimmed.
Then died completely.
Mana along that entire northern stretch of the wall went dead in an instant.
Silent and invisible, the Arachne sank back into the darkness, its task complete.
# # #
Unaware of the horror erupting at the northern wall, Kael stared out his bedroom window—and froze.
A dozen Forest Giants loomed in the darkness, standing eerily still just beyond the city's defensive wall. They waited like executioners, each gripping a massive stone club or a crude stone hammer.
The moment the mana stone went dark, the shift was immediate.
Outside, the Forest Giants stirred.
Their glowing green eyes widened as they sensed the sudden drop in mana—an entire segment of the defensive wall falling dormant like a beast losing its heartbeat.
A low, rumbling growl rolled through the night.
Then the giants charged.
Their massive footsteps shook the ground, cracking soil and flattening trees as they barreled forward. Stone clubs and crude hammers were raised high, their muscles bulging like coiled roots beneath bark-like skin.
The foremost Giant reached the wall first.
It swung its stone club with the force of a falling meteor.
BOOM!
A shockwave rippled through the wall, making the entire structure tremble. Dust burst from the seams between the stones, and faint cracks began to spread across the surface.
Then the second giant slammed its stone hammer down a heartbeat later, smashing through deadened magic runes that no longer resisted.
The third followed with a sweeping blow that split the stone like brittle wood.
Cracks spiderwebbed rapidly across the structure.
And then—
CRAAAASH!
The weakened section of wall gave way all at once, imploding toward the city in a roaring burst of stone and dust. Rubble rained across streets and rooftops as the breached wall crumbled like wet sand under the giants' relentless assault.
Through the falling debris, a tidal wave of monsters surged into the city—howling goblins, shadow wolves, armored boars, lumbering trolls. They poured through the opening like floodwater bursting through a broken dam.
Civilians sprinted away from the breach—racing toward the city center where the large emergency barriers were activating.
Bright walls of mana rose around government shelters, guild halls, and city guard posts, forming the only zones that still felt safe.
Near the ruined wall, chaos had already taken over.
Thousands of monsters poured through the gap, and the local Transcendents—caught off guard by the sudden breach—scrambled to form a defensive line. Some shouted orders or warnings, others reacted on instinct alone. Small groups of friends or teammates fought shoulder to shoulder, trying desperately to hold the tide back even for a minute.
But it wasn't enough.
Their formation buckled almost immediately under the sheer weight of the horde. Whatever coordination they managed to pull together fell apart as the frontline collapsed. Some warriors covered each other's retreat, while others broke into a panic and fled toward the city center.
Hundreds of Transcendents had already fallen—and just as many monsters with them—but the horde surged on, barely slowed at all.
Kael watched the chaos from his bedroom window, heart hammering as he weighed his options. Should he rush to reinforce the defenders—or head for the shelters while there was still time?
Just as he steeled himself to choose, a familiar blur cut through the dark streets below.
His mentor Fumitaka was already sprinting straight toward one of the Forest Giants, with Leyla and Zaur right behind him.
"Shit!" Kael hissed, adrenaline snapping him into motion.
He strapped on his light armor made from a fifth-stage 'Nightiron Beetle', the dark plates locking snugly across his torso. Then he reached for the weapons he trusted most—his paired khukuri knives, forged from the scythe-blades of a fifth-stage 'Dire-Scythe Mantis'. Their curved edges glinted with a cold, predatory sheen.
"Running away isn't an answer," Kael muttered, jaw tightening. "But I can't show too much either… I'll stick to the first-stage ones and keep an eye on them from a distance."
Outside, more figures were converging on the breach from deeper within the city.
Some sprinted through the streets, weapons blooming with aura.
A rare few streaked through the air—flying with conjured wings, levitation magic, or artifact-supported flight.
Kael took one final breath.
"…Here I come."
He vaulted straight through his bedroom window, dropping four stories before landing in a low crouch on the street. Aura rippled around his legs, softening the fall. He launched forward immediately, sprinting toward the rising roar of battle.
The northern sector was pure chaos.
Shouts, spells, and monster cries ricocheted between buildings like rolling thunder.
Kael raced down the wide street, passing shattered lampposts, overturned vehicles, and scorched stone where frantic spellcasters had left their marks. With every step, the noise grew louder, the air thicker, the sense of desperation sharper.
As he rounded a corner, he spotted movement ahead.
Groups of Transcendents—some armored, some in uniform, others still in their everyday clothes—were forming temporary strike teams to confront the remaining giants. Kael recognized a few from WGDA postings, guild interviews, training halls. Others were lone fighters who had simply run toward danger the moment it appeared.
Kael kept running—
—until the air split.
BOOOOM!
A massive shockwave tore down the street, rattling shop signs and blasting dust outward.
Kael skidded to a stop, eyes widening.
Someone had leapt clear over multiple city blocks and crashed into the center of the battlefield—hard enough to gouge out a crater more than ten meters wide.
The impact tremor rolled beneath Kael's feet.
A thick cloud of dust erupted, swallowing the entire street in a choking veil of gray.
"What in the—!?" a shield warrior shouted, bracing himself.
"A giant!?" another cried.
"No… the trajectory was from inside the city." a trembling mage whispered.
Every head turned toward the crater as the dust began to settle.
Footsteps echoed from within.
Slow. Unhurried. Confident.
A tall figure emerged from the swirling haze—broad-shouldered, red-haired, his crimson eyes burning through the dust like embers in a furnace.