Several hours later, the noisy, bustling camp finally fell silent, leaving only the sound of flesh and bones being crushed between chewing jaws.
It was the sound of the tentacles on Heaven's Obedience enjoying their feast, their food the Guardian corpses piled like mountains before them.
Yes, this force that should have been the strongest fighting force in the world had become food in just a few short hours. Armor shattered, swords broke, flesh and bone ground together beneath the frenzied tentacles' merciless chewing.
As for the statue at the very top, it had not even opened its eyes. Who knew whether it was watching this bloody slaughter?
There was not a single living person left in the camp, yet heavy breathing could still be heard from beneath the piled corpses.
Rustle... rustle...
The piled bodies were pushed aside, and the massive figure wrapped in chains slowly rose to his feet.
Half of his body had already rotted away, and more than half the sealing chains had been damaged. The exposed portions were identical to the tentacles on Heaven's Obedience.
His rising drew the tentacles' attention. Compared to human flesh, they preferred devouring their own kind, and they sensed the aura of one of their kind from this mountain-like figure.
Yet they did not dare approach, because compared to that negligible aura of kinship, they could sense danger far more clearly.
So they moved aside, leaving him a space wide enough to feed.
But they did not know that he had no need to eat.
"It's over..." A muddy, low voice emerged from the Warden's throat, carrying a trace of relief. "Finally... it's over..."
He had finally failed to wake up again.
It had been a long nightmare, one in which he did not know how many times he had