Impact

A shadow, a shadow from beyond Xilantis, had always floated within this vast dark space woven from Xilantis's dreams and memories.

Now, Duncan had discovered its existence for the first time.

"By Rahm's name!" Rune's eyes widened as he stared at the enormous structure finally emerging above the dark expanse under the eerie green firelight. "What is that?!"

Duncan did not answer. He merely walked to the window and stared grimly at the dark structure that seemed to be crushing down upon Xilantis, yet frozen in a single instant. After a moment, his expression finally shifted slightly, as though he had suddenly understood something—

"Great Annihilation... so that was it..."

Corruption and distortion were spreading through the forest, across the earth, throughout the entire world.

Something invisible was "seeping into" this elven homeland. Wherever it spread, the land writhed and rose like swollen flesh; endless fangs and eyes opened in the shadows; trees grew wildly, then dissolved and surged upward like flames... Everything seemed to have lost its former order, transforming into something else amid violent, mad, nightmare-like changes.

Piercing, horrifying roars and shrieks swept endlessly across the forest, howling through Xilantis's immense canopy and echoing wantonly between heaven and earth as though they would tear souls apart.

Shirley stared down at the land below in lingering terror. In the blink of an eye, the lush and vibrant forest had become an absurd hell beyond even nightmares. Looking at the abyssal maws opening in the forest and the pulsating flesh and shadows, she instinctively gripped the raised edge of the Paper Boat.

"This thing really won't fall, will it?"

She glanced again at the little boat folded from paper beneath her feet and nervously sought confirmation from the witch beside her.

Not long ago, when terrible "erosion" had suddenly