The sky broke first.
Not with thunder.
Not with light.
It split—slowly, violently—as if reality itself had reached its limit.
Across every continent, the same phenomenon unfolded. Space twisted. The air darkened. Mana density spiked so violently that even S-rank hunters were forced to their knees, blood running from noses that had faced dragon lords and survived.
Then the gates didn't open.
They manifested.
Not portals.
Frontlines.
GLOBAL EMERGENCE EVENT
More than a hundred massive rifts tore open across the planet.
Each carried a different pressure.
Each carried a different concept.
The Hunter Association's alarms screamed worldwide.
[MONARCH-LEVEL THREAT DETECTED]
[MULTIPLE ARMIES CONFIRMED]
[CIVILIAN EVACUATION IMPOSSIBLE IN MOST ZONES]
Humanity didn't ask why.
They already knew.
The Monarchs had come.
THE ARMIES OF CHAOS
From the largest rift, the ground ignited.
Skeletal dragons tore free first, wings of bone and flame blotting out the sun. Molten giants followed, magma dripping from cracked bodies. Behind them marched burning knights in flawless formation.
The Desolators.
Even without Anthony's presence, destruction itself marched forward.
To the east, the land began to rot.
Insectoid humanoids clawed their way out of the soil, bodies fused with disease and corruption. Plague beasts howled as parasite worms spilled into rivers, sewers, and cities.
The Blightborn spread—still mutating, still multiplying—long after their Monarch's death.
Then the cities began to collapse.
Titanborn descended like walking disasters. Stone colossi shattered skyscrapers simply by moving. Crystal giants devoured roads, buildings, and mountains alike, absorbing minerals as entire districts were crushed beneath their advance.
Harald Hadrada was dead.
His army was not.
Far north, the temperature dropped to absolute zero.
Ice giants stepped through frozen air. Frost wolves hunted in silent packs. Frozen undead dragged shattered weapons across snow-covered ruins.
The Glacials advanced without sound.
Storm clouds formed unnaturally fast as lightning spirits phased in and out of reality. Shadow assassins bled out of darkness itself. Chains scraped across the sky, binding space as Bound Ones descended.
Across the world, every Monarch army appeared at once.
Not as an invasion.
As an execution.
HUMANITY RESPONDS
Jinyoung stood at the center of a ruined city, abyssal aura rolling off him like a tide.
Behind him stood:
Nation-level hunters.
SS-rank elites.
S-rank veterans.
Survivors from worlds that no longer existed.
And his army.
The Abyssal Legion had changed.
They no longer felt like scattered undead.
They felt unified.
Death and Abyss overlapped perfectly now.
Liam stepped forward, his armor reshaped again—denser, darker, etched with flowing lines of black-white energy. The Ice Bear boss loomed behind him, nearly twice its former size, frost layered over abyssal muscle. The Orc Mage raised its staff, runes multiplying and rewriting themselves mid-cast.
Jinyoung exhaled slowly.
This wasn't a duel.
This was a war of extermination.
FIRST CLASH
"Frontline units—engage," Jun-Ho ordered, his voice steady despite the apocalypse unfolding before them.
Michael and Tom charged first, Nation-rank power ripping through Blightborn swarms. Lightning split the sky as Takado Shin flashed forward, severing Tempestborn mid-teleport.
Haru raised his staff.
Mana stabilized.
Then detonated.
A Desolator dragon vanished in a silent implosion.
Riyomi disappeared into shadow, reappearing only when Bound Ones fell apart piece by piece.
Riku crossed the battlefield faster than sound, drawing entire formations away from evacuation zones.
And Jinyoung—
He stepped forward once.
The Abyss answered.
A wave of black-white energy erased everything in front of him—Desolators, Shadeborn, even corrupted Feralborn—devoured, not destroyed.
But even as they fell…
More came.
Endless.
Relentless.
REALIZATION
This wasn't a single battle.
This wasn't even a campaign.
It was attrition.
Humanity could win fights.
But this war—
It would take time.
Blood.
And sacrifice.
Jinyoung watched the horizon burn and understood something clearly for the first time.
Killing Monarchs was only the beginning.
Ending their armies would take everything.
And somewhere beyond the battlefield—
Something watched.