When the first ray of dawn painfully tore through the curtain of night and fell upon Golden Port, what met the eye was a scene straight out of hell.
The stench of gunpowder, the reek of blood, and the scorched smell of burning wood mingled together like a thick toxic fog, shrouding the entire city.
The air no longer held its usual clamor. Only scattered screams from afar, the groans of the dying, and the crackling of wood being devoured by tongues of flame could be heard from time to time.
The streets had lost all their former prosperity.
The splendid storefronts had been violently torn apart, precious goods looted clean, leaving only shattered pottery and overturned shelves.
The muddy ground was littered with discarded weapons, bloodstained clothing, and horrifying severed limbs.
Several abandoned War Boar corpses lay in the middle of the road, their fur charred black and giving off a foul stench.
Occasionally, surviving residents crawled out from the ruins. Their eyes were vacant and their faces deathly pale as they wandered the streets like walking corpses, futilely searching for family or possessions.
Benjamin stood beneath the portico of Dawn Mansion, the breeze stirring his immaculate robe.
After a night of slaughter, even his breathing had never faltered, and not a speck of dust stained his body.
Before the villa, hundreds of Orc and human soldier corpses had been neatly piled into a small mountain. Their dried blood appeared dark brown beneath the morning light.
That mountain of corpses radiated the chill of death, yet it also silently proclaimed the safety of this area.
Looking at the three Orc generals beside him, bound like rice dumplings yet still struggling desperately, Benjamin nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad, not bad. I never expected a surprise like you. At least all