When Elena silently returned to the central plaza, she stopped her steps in shock.
The temporary camp of the United Army had been overrun and turned into a bloody battlefield. The quickly built barricades were scattered across the stone, equipment was burning and overturned, and dozens of bodies were scattered between pools of blackened liquid and bloody gore.
It was chaos!
Woosh!
Without hesitation, Elena shot forward, boots striking fractured brick as violent wind tore at her cloak. Each step ripple in the air as she was carried with the wind like a cannon.
The United Army was under attack!
Dusk Dwellers were everywhere!
They pulled themselves up through cracks in the plaza's foundation, rising from the black pools like stretching shadows. Their bodies unfolded as they emerged, tall and unnaturally thin things, each standing nearly ten meters high, and formed from twig-like frames that bent and swayed as they moved.
They were fast, unbalanced, and completely without focus.
These were not the same Dusk Dwellers they had faced in Darkwell, no, those had sought only to spread corruption and increase their numbers. But these ones, this time, they hunted! Not to multiply, but to grow stronger with every kill.
And—
They weren't alone!
Massive insects rampaged through the plaza alongside them, nothing exotic or unnatural in shape or form, only monstrously enlarged versions of the western region's common insects.
Huge beetles thundered through the camp, their heavy shells shrugging off blades and arrows as they smashed through the resistance. Each step cracked stone, and anything caught beneath their bulky bellies, or before their hardened horns, was crushed without resistance.
Towering mantis-like monsters flashed between the Dusk Dwellers, their elongated bodies swaying as bladed legs slicked through soldiers and armor with clean effortless cuts.
Closer to the ground, swarms of massive centipede-like insects poured across the plaza.
Their long, segmented bodies rippled as they surged forward, some only a few meters long, while others were over fifty, slipped through gaps in the defense and dragged soldiers down beneath their great numbers and countless legs.
Once surrounded, regardless of the assailant, there was no escape.
The attack was layered and relentless, picking off the outer layers of the army one at a time. Behind it all, the Dusk Dwellers moved like living shadows, snaking in and out of the massive insect's silhouettes, and launching themselves at anything that made a mistake.
This hadn't been random.
While Elena was gone, the enemy had struck with intent, turning the central plaza and the United Army's temporary camp into a killing ground.
There was a 'mastermind!'
And she had returned just in time to see how badly things had gone wrong.
Her heart fell.
She had miscalculated…
-
Gritting her teeth, she exploded with a violent momentum.
Elena's spiritual power wrapped around her body. She drew both daggers and split the first Dark Dweller at the waist with a single flash of light. It folded in half and fell like a dead branch. The light 'thud' produced was too quiet for a creature of its size.
But that exact sound—
Was what caused all the Dusk Dwellers to look this way!
Swoosh!
She was already gone.
Swoosh-bang-bang! Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh! BANG!
Swoosh!
A flicker of gold swept across the shattered plaza, cutting down a second Dusk Dweller, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. In her wake, the others surged forward, rallying behind her with their swords raised and shields stalling. Spells ignited and artifacts activated. The chaos turned to order, and the battle was quickly reorganised.
With Elena's arrival, the morale that had been slipping away surged.
* * *
The battle ended quickly.
Twenty minutes later, the last of the creeping shadows collapsed and crumbled into ash. Silence reclaimed the plaza, broken only by the crackle of burning insects and the heavy breathing of exhausted soldiers. The smell of charcoal and blood lingered in the air.
They did a head count.
When Elena reached the makeshift camp that had been tossed together shortly before the attack, she found most of the search teams had already returned. One by one, reports came in, clear and concise, one after another.
Elena listened to the information.
It was just as bad as they predicted.
Soon, as these reports continued to come one after another, Elena finally realised something was wrong. Why were they all coming to her…?
She looked around again.
"Hm?"
To Elena's surprise, the Mercenary Alliance was gone…
Only the independent mercenary camps remained. When she asked, the answer was simple. Hexfill had returned briefly, gathered his people, and left. There was no destination given, and he had yet to return.
No one pressed for more information, how could they? From what they had seen, many suspected that he didn't intend to return at all. The Mercenary Alliance was one of, if not the, leading force that comprised the largest portion of the United Army. Even so, the empty space where the Mercenary Alliance had once stood felt empty…
Elena watched the gap for a moment, then turned away.
She couldn't understand why they would leave now, of all times, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Orders moved like rain!
The surviving supplies were checked and counted. What could be salvaged was sealed, and what couldn't was abandoned. The temporary camp was dismantled piece by piece, leaving behind only what was there before they had arrived.
Elena already knew where they were going next.
Without Hexfill or Pillia, the command fell fully onto her shoulders. She accepted it without hesitation. There was no ceremony, no announcement, only the quiet understanding that what was coming next mattered more than anything else.
When preparations were complete, they moved.
Elena led the way.
They crossed ruined streets, slipped through narrow alleys, and climbed over collapsed roots that wove through the city's infrastructure. They skirted the edges of black pools and kept their distance from the dripping sky, moving with caution as they disappeared into the city.
-
Time passed.
From time to time, Duskdwellers emerged from the blackened shadows and struck at unpredictable times. They came in tight groups, fast and deliberate, never in numbers large enough to split the army into a large fight, but always enough to gnaw at their edges. The attacks lacked desperation. They felt measured, restrained, as if each clash was less an attack and more an 'experiment'.
It felt like they were testing them…
No one said it out loud, but the Dusk Dwellers seemed to be getting more intelligent.
They kept moving.
Elena led the united army to the south of the city, towards a 'small' stone shrine that didn't match the human aesthetic. It stood open to the sky, centered between a ring of pale pedestals as a single statue five meters tall.
Unlike the surrounding city, the statue was untouched by the calamity.
It was High Elven, obviously…
Oriest had been built atop the ruins of another city, and this was something that very few people knew. From the looks of it, this small shrine was a remaining piece of the original city.
They looked at the statue.
The figure at the top of the statue was faceless and white robed, reflecting an Emperor seated with one hand lifted in a grand, unreadable gesture. The pedestal was carved with layered murals that wrapped around it like spiraling bands.
Elena scanned them with a glance.
Three 'High Elven Lords' were depicted beneath the 'Faceless Emperor'. Not statues, only murals, each different and woven into the statue as a support. The first was a crystalline man, surrounded by mirrors and countless identical figures. The second molded the void with his bare hands, folding distance like cloth and weaving space where and when necessary. The third held a sun, with threads running from his ribs into an uncountable number of cities, feeding an empire by himself.
Below them, nine temples.
And below the nine temples, different levels of courts, artisans, soldiers, and an uncomfortable number of figures, all etched with tiny script. It was both a surreal and realistic depiction of the empire. Unlike the faceless emperor, each of these smaller and insignificant figures was depicted in a way that reflected them perfectly, with hyper-realistic faces.
This was how the High Elves created their art.
It was a civilization preserved in stone.
It was not enchanted with any magic, but the sheer 'weight of knowledge' that this single creation held protected it from many things.
Unfortunately—
Elena stepped forward.
To the shock of the United Army, Elena drew her dagger and slashed it forward with a ferocious swing. Rippling light sparked along the blade as a single arc of white light tore through the statue. Unseen layers of metal screamed as stone burst. The unnamed Emperor shattered, his broken arms and faceless head rolling down the steps.
It landed, head turned, its empty eyes staring at Elena as she walked past in large strides.
Shock rolled through the crowd as their minds quickly caught up.
Some of the soldiers murmured behind her. Elena could feel awe, anger, and weariness, but she did not turn around and explain herself.
She crossed the low steps and kicked the fractured base with her boot.
BOOM! With a loud bang, the slab slid aside to reveal a sealed hatch formed from black stone beneath the statue.
Elena raised her daggers once again.
The spiritual energy around her condensed to a terrifying degree, vibrating the surrounding stone and raising dust into the air. Her second level of cultivation seemed to explode and scream as it rose to temporarily reflect the fourth order.
Using all of her strength, she drove her daggers down in a violent streak of golden light.
For a breath, the surrounding world felt smaller...
Both daggers dropped as golden streaks flickered.
—!
Then—
Screeeeeech!
The sound was followed by a long, tearing shriek. The ground buckled, and a ring of dust exploded out across the shrine. When the air cleared, only a huge hole remained where the statue had stood.
The sealed gates had been cut open!
Elena lifted her arms, and her hands trembled from the force.
That attack had exceeded her physical limits.
There was no speech, no celebration, just a strange quiet that hung in the air.
She went first…
The others followed, one figure after another, dropping down into the darkness beneath the shrine.
-
After everyone had descended, none of them saw the little ant (Petra) that followed them down…
* * *
As they descended, the world was swallowed by black.
The speed of their fall was too great for simple torches and magic lights to keep up with. The flames flickered and vanished, swallowed by the air that was rushing past them. They could only keep falling in silence, surrounded by an endless darkness.
They dropped in silence.
There was no sense of direction, only the knowledge that they were still falling, wrapped in an endless nothingness that pressed in from all sides.
Time lost its meaning.
Seconds bled together as minutes stretched, warped, and blurred into something that felt far longer than it should have been.
The descent went on far longer than anyone expected.
Including Elena.
Then—
At last, the shaft opened...
The darkness peeled back just enough to reveal a massive horizontal tunnel, so wide that its edges vanished into the shadows. It was perfectly cylindrical, and its walls were smooth and unnaturally uniform, as though carved not by hand, but by some colossal ancient machine designed to burrow through the world.
The scale was overwhelming.
The tunnel stretched more than three hundred meters across, dwarfing everything around it.
Even Elena, with memories of her original world, had never seen anything like this. Even on Earth, nothing that could create something like this existed, at least, not in her time.
The walls were dark and smooth, carrying a faint metallic shine that caught what little light there was in this lightless darkness. In many places, dim white lights pulsed softly along the surface of the walls, drifting in slow waves like fireflies trapped beneath the water. A low reverberating hum filled the space, not loud enough to find, but constant, vibrating faintly through bone and armor.
Swoosh!
They emerged from the ceiling, still falling…
As they continued to drop, something stirred at the edge of the vertical shaft above them.
An unseen 'Rune Matrix' flared to life!
Mmmm!
Lines of light traced complex patterns in the air, before shooting outwards, forming thin streams of magic that wrapped around each of the falling figures.
Rings of glowing script formed briefly, tightening, and stabilizing them.
One by one, their descent slowed down.
What had been a deadly plunge became a gentle drift. The army floated downward like scattered feathers, landing in muted thuds across the tunnel's 'floor'.
When their boots finally struck the solid ground, each impact sent deep echoes rolling through the vast space. The sound traveled for kilometers, bouncing endlessly along the curved walls of the tunnels' interior before fading into nothing.
Elena waited in silence until the last of them arrived.