Night fell unnaturally over the Duchy of Douglas.
The stellar clouds—usually rippling and luminous—hung suspended in the sky, as if frozen by an invisible force.The mages stationed in the defensive towers, accustomed to reading every pulse of mana in the atmosphere, lifted their heads in confusion.
"The Cloud… it's behaving strangely," an apprentice whispered, his fingers trembling against a mana crystal."Too still…" another replied, watching the light compress into an ominous glow.
It was not stillness. It was containment.
Someone was using it like a lid, compressing its energy—preparing it for an eruption that could shatter dimensions.
From the surrounding forests, the watchers detected the first movements of the summoned creatures.
"Rifts to the east!""And to the north!""Three… four… six!" voices multiplied in alarm. "There are too many!"
The commander of the guard, his cloak marked with mana sigils, activated the protocol.
"Calamity-level threat. All cities at maximum alert. Let the mana trumpets awaken the warriors and the beast tamers."
Two days' travel from the Duchy, in a hidden clearing deep within the forest, the Heralds and their demonic allies had gathered.
The sight resembled a nightmare made real: creatures of every size and shape, from lesser demons to beasts corrupted by the mana cloud, clustered in concentric circles.Each step they took left incandescent marks on the ground while dark, rotten mana seeped from their bodies.
The demonic leader raised his arm, and an ancient roar echoed through the trees.
"Listen," he said, his voice reverberating like fractured stone. "The Duchess is not alone—but her allies are divided. Larriet is the only guardian present. Thunder and Umber protect the young Douglas. Yet even Larriet cannot face our horde."
The Heralds, clad in robes embroidered with the symbols of their god, nodded solemnly.
"The monster armies, scattered and hungry for mana, will serve as our spearhead," one of them added. "The intermediate cities will send messengers, but they will not arrive in time."
A high-ranking demon whose skin was etched with glowing runes gestured.
"I have fed the beasts with concentrated mana from the Stellar Cloud. Their levels have risen exponentially. Soon the energized herbivores and carnivores will follow us like a tidal wave that will sweep through the forest. Even the humans who try to resist will be dragged under."
"And the cultists on the outskirts of the cities," another added. "They have placed traps, minor summonings, and mana barriers that will delay the Duchy's troops. The capital will be isolated when the horde arrives."
For three days, the clearing became a planning headquarters.
Mana maps drawn in glowing circles.Spheres of magical sight predicting the arrival of human patrols.Runes capable of detecting any concentration of beast tamers.
Every creature, every demon, every Herald had a role.Every movement calculated with lethal precision.
In the administrative hall of the Duchy—a vast and solemn chamber at the heart of the capital—Sofía stood before a map spread across the table, pointing out routes, cities, and forward outposts. Around her, garrison chiefs, strategist mages, and beast tamers debated every detail.
"Reports from the peripheral cities are coming in," said a captain. "Monster activity has increased in the nearby forests. High-mana herbivores are fleeing in stampedes, and the predators have begun to gather."
Sofía frowned, calculating times and distances. Each city lay between thirty and forty kilometers from the capital—close enough for rapid movement by messengers and patrols, yet any delay could prove fatal.
"Reinforce patrols along the routes between cities," she ordered. "Every scout must carry a detailed report and return immediately. Beast riders must be ready to escort any convoy and respond to attacks."
A brief silence settled over the room as everyone absorbed the scale of the problem. The capital was prepared to coordinate the defense, but even with its army and trained beast riders, the Duchy faced something that could not be underestimated.
"We will do everything possible to contain it," said one of the mages. "But if this reaches the main city… it will be a disaster."
Sofía lifted her gaze, cold and resolute.
"Then we make sure it never does. Every man, every beast, every spell counts. This Duchy will not fall while I breathe."
The Duchy of Douglas was not merely a territory—it was a living organism. It spread like a diamond: the capital city at its center, and six strategic bastions surrounding it, each guarding key routes and protecting the villages and ecosystems around them.
Each bastion was a knot of defensive power:
Mana barriers capable of repelling both physical projectiles and magical attacks.
Area-defense spells that could trap and burn wild beasts before they ever touched the walls.
Anti-mana shields that blocked any attempt to saturate the area with external energy.
Arcane archery towers whose incandescent projectiles could pierce level-50 creatures with ease.
Anti-monster runes capable of disintegrating prey or animals corrupted by demonic mana.
Under normal circumstances, any monster horde would be annihilated long before reaching the walls. A scout's warning would have meant little more than a controlled spectacle of fire and destruction, with minimal human casualties.
But this time… nothing was normal.
From the rifts opening in forests and rivers, an invisible tide of demonic energy spread outward, saturating the air, water, and earth. Every creature touched by the wave mutated, its power multiplying not linearly—but exponentially.
Level-20 herbivores became level-50 predators.
Level-40 carnivores rose to level 70, their muscles and senses sharpened by corrupt energy.
Level-60 monsters reached level 85, growing longer fangs, denser claws, and magical auras that warped the surrounding mana.
Some elites—the apex of the mutated ecosystem—surpassed level 90, capable of destroying small buildings or breaching mana barriers through coordinated assaults.
The Duchy's strength was formidable: between five and seven thousand soldiers of Lord and Magister rank, each trained in combat and the manipulation of mana. Yet against thousands of monsters of equal level—corrupted, coordinated, and driven by demonic will—even that number seemed insufficient.
The Duchy's commanders studied the reports with growing alarm. The patterns of the horde were not random. The beasts moved in tactical swarms, flanking and concentrating attacks as if guided by a single purpose:
Break the central defense and reach the capital city.
The air smelled of ozone and raw magic. Even from the capital, the vibration of the horde's power could be felt in the surrounding forests and mountains. Every step of a level-70 monster made the earth tremble. Every roar echoing through the valleys left even the most seasoned soldiers with a creeping sense of helplessness.
Sofía stood alone with her Larriet, while the other two magical guardians remained with Lusian outside the Duchy. Even with five hundred trained beast riders, the scale of the assault was such that a single failure could mean the fall of the central city.
The defenders of the Duchy were not facing monsters alone.
An invisible danger floated through the air: demonic corruption—a magical virus accelerating the mutation of every creature and warping entire ecosystems in its wake. Forests twisted into new shapes, rivers bubbled with raw energy, and hills cracked apart as though the land itself were screaming in pain.
The threat was not merely physical.
It was apocalyptic.