The sounds of hooves, steel, and magic echoed like the first heartbeat of a war that had not yet begun.
The army advanced toward Carter territory.
For the first few days, everything went according to plan.
The monsters were tracked, classified, and eliminated.
Scouts watched the roads.
Mages followed established routes.
Units maintained their positions.
The magical beasts remained under control.
It was a perfect machine.
This was Douglas territory.
Here, humans still dictated the rules.
But after crossing the border...
something changed.
It did not happen all at once.
First, it was the air.
It became heavier.
Then the mana.
It no longer flowed evenly.
There were areas where it accumulated with such intensity that the measuring crystals became saturated.
And others where it simply...
disappeared.
The scouts began returning with strange reports.
Roads that did not appear on the maps.
Footprints far too large.
Trees marked from within.
Areas where animals had abandoned entire kilometers of forest.
And above all...
silence.
Far too much silence.
On the second day, they found the first creatures.
Dozens of enormous herbivores occupied a plain.
They looked like deer.
But each one stood over three meters tall.
Moss covered their bodies, while rocky formations grew from their backs.
Their antlers looked as if they had been carved from stone.
The soldiers raised their weapons.
Lusian raised one hand.
"Do not attack."
The column slowed.
The animals barely reacted.
One raised its head.
It watched the army.
Then returned to grazing.
Lusian frowned.
"Keep moving."
The column advanced.
The soldiers passed between them.
No one was attacked.
No one fled.
That should have been reassuring.
It wasn't.
The animals did not seem to tolerate them.
They seemed to...
ignore them.
As if two thousand armed soldiers were no more important than a stone in the road.
For several minutes, nothing happened.
Then a roar tore through the forest.
Lusian raised his head.
Another answered.
Farther away.
Then another.
And another.
The herbivores stopped eating.
All at once.
Dozens of heads rose.
The army stopped.
"What is happening?" Albert asked.
No one answered.
Then the animals ran.
The prairie exploded.
Hundreds of tons of flesh and stone began moving in every direction.
"SHIELDS!"
Barriers appeared just as the first beast reached the formation.
BOOM!
The impact shook the line.
But they were not attacking.
They were fleeing.
"Hold your positions!"
Another creature slammed into the barriers.
Then another.
And another.
The soldiers began retreating.
"Do not give ground!"
The earth trembled.
The forest shook.
Trees began falling.
Then the predators appeared.
Wolves with exposed skeletons.
Felines covered in blue flames.
Four-legged beasts with fangs that nearly scraped the ground.
But they did not attack either.
They ran.
All in the same direction.
Straight toward them.
Fleeing.
"What the hell is happening?!" a soldier shouted.
No one answered.
One of the creatures leaped toward the formation.
Thunder struck it before it could reach the lines.
Lightning tore across the ground.
The beast was sent flying.
Umber disappeared into the shadows.
Adela raised both hands.
Ice covered part of the prairie.
The creatures kept running.
They did not even look at the humans.
That was what made Lusian feel a chill.
They were not being attacked.
They were caught in a stampede.
And something was causing it.
"Open a path!" Albert ordered.
But the order came too late.
A group of creatures broke through the left flank.
The horses began rearing.
The soldiers lost formation.
A wagon overturned.
Someone screamed.
One beast passed between two units.
Another broke through a barrier.
A mage cast a spell on instinct.
The explosion caused five creatures to change direction.
And then the chaos spread.
"DO NOT CAST SPELLS!"
"HOLD THE LINE!"
"WHERE IS THE THIRD SQUAD?!"
"THEY'VE BEEN SEPARATED!"
"I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!"
Dust covered the prairie.
Roars mixed with the neighing of horses.
Orders could no longer be heard.
For several minutes, the Douglas army ceased to be an army.
They were simply men trying not to be trampled.
Lusian remained atop Thunder.
He tried to see beyond the stampede.
Then he heard it.
A sound.
It was not a roar.
It was not a growl.
It was something much farther away.
A thump.
Then another.
BOOM.
The ground vibrated.
Thunder raised his ears.
Lusian froze.
The creatures did too.
For one second...
everything fell silent.
Then the stampede began moving again.
But this time, not in every direction.
They were all running west.
All of them.
Lusian looked toward the forest.
"What is there?"
A scout approached, covered in dust.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"According to the maps, just forest."
Another thump echoed in the distance.
BOOM.
The ground trembled again.
The scout looked toward the trees.
"Now I'm not so sure."
Lusian dismounted.
He crouched beside one of the footprints.
It was fresh.
Deep.
Far too large.
But it did not belong to any of the creatures they had seen.
He raised his head.
"Whose is it?"
No one answered.
Then one of the mages shouted from the rear.
"My lord!"
Lusian turned.
"What?"
The man pointed toward the mana instruments.
The needle was completely off the scale.
"The level just increased."
"How much?"
The mage swallowed.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"The instrument can't measure it."
Silence.
Lusian looked toward the forest again.
The trees moved.
Not because of the wind.
One.
Then another.
Then ten.
A flock of birds burst from the treetops.
Behind them, hundreds of creatures emerged from the forest.
Deer.
Wolves.
Beasts Lusian had never seen before.
All of them running.
All of them moving away.
None attacked.
None stopped.
They simply fled.
And then Lusian understood.
This was not a monster-infested area.
This was their territory.
They were the intruders.
The monsters were not appearing because the army had arrived.
The army had arrived because the monsters were fleeing.
Lusian felt his stomach tighten.
He looked back toward the road they had traveled.
Behind them were the familiar fields.
The safe routes.
The cities.
The walls.
Ahead...
there was only forest.
And thousands of creatures fleeing from something they still could not see.
Thunder let out a nervous neigh.
Lusian placed a hand on his neck.
"Easy."
But his own voice sounded unconvincing.
Albert approached.
"Do we continue?"
Lusian took a moment to answer.
He looked at the forest.
Then at the soldiers.
Many were still reorganizing their positions.
Some had blood on their armor.
Others were searching for their comrades.
They no longer advanced like a machine.
They had lost something.
Not men.
Not yet.
They had lost the certainty that they knew where they were.
Lusian finally spoke.
"Yes."
Albert looked at him.
"Are you sure?"
Lusian mounted again.
"No."
A pause.
"But we continue."
The army began moving.
More slowly.
More tightly packed.
More silently.
No one talked about clearing the area anymore.
No one talked about a monster migration anymore.
Because they had all seen the footprints.
They had all felt the tremors.
And they all knew something was behind the stampede.
Something that had managed to make creatures the humans had considered predators until a few days ago flee in terror.
Lusian looked toward the forest one last time.
In the distance, the same sound could be heard again.
BOOM.
This time, it was closer.
Thunder tensed beneath him.
Lusian said nothing.
He simply kept moving.