The kindling of destruction is ready; now is the time to burn!

"Every time I see the creations of Dusk, I can't help wondering just how magnificent the knowledge from the previous age must have been—the knowledge they pursue, which exists only in legends. They need only find a few scattered remnants of the Golden Age to create these astonishing things.

These are living creatures they've created.

A power said to belong only to the Creator, a power even ordinary gods can't covet."

Claw-Splitter Matriarch Botana leaned on her thunder-lizard bone staff, the symbol of her chieftainship, as she walked slowly through the dark underground tunnel. She hadn't come alone; beside her was Lord Manson, the Bloodscar clan's Golden Hunting Priest.

These two were the leaders.

The hundreds of gnoll priests following behind them were all spellcasters, and they carried bundles of ritual implements of every kind. They looked very much like they were about to do something terrible.

The tunnel they were walking through lay at least sixty meters underground. No ordinary race could have dug a passage like this. In fact, even the kobolds, who were the most skilled diggers, couldn't have managed such a feat.

Not because kobolds couldn't dig into such a strange place, but simply because large-scale excavation at that depth couldn't escape the notice of the earth priests at the positions above.

But the ratmen could!

Even now, countless ratmen were still working along both sides of the tunnel the gnolls were walking through.

They weren't just digging with their claws. That would have been far too slow.

Some among them were unusual psychic individuals, capable of using simple earth magic to loosen the surrounding rock and soil. Then the ratman slaves would swarm in and widen the passage, digging deeper.

The sight of tens of thousands of humanoid giant rats laboring together was astonishing. But