"Fall back! Fall back!"
The slaughter on the eastern battlefield had yet to cease, but the defensive line had retreated again and again, from the city walls to the streets and alleys.
But retreat itself signaled something.
The dam of wind and sand could no longer hold back the beastfolk's black tide.
The tragedy of two centuries ago seemed close at hand: "Resistance is meaningless. It's all over."
Kandelian heard the people's cries of despair. Even he himself was beginning to doubt the meaning of it all.
A mage's way of thinking had made him accustomed to treating every challenge as a puzzle waiting to be solved.
So he had tried every possible precaution, dissecting the reasons for the failure two centuries ago, locating the Plague Source variable, stockpiling a fixed amount of food, and confidently arranging all those symbols into an equation that assured him he would not repeat the same mistakes. Yet he discovered in confusion that the problem they faced today was completely different from that of two centuries ago.
There had been no Giant Dragons or collapses in the old puzzle. There had only been defenders suffering and breaking beneath the famine of Wind Sand Islet.
And what was today's answer? Would they have to wait another two centuries to find it?
"I am the ancient overlord, the First Awakened, leader of Giant Dragons, the dragon who shall reclaim the world—the great Lord of the Rotfen Anduin!"
In the distance, the Giant Dragon's roar resounded across the clamorous battlefield, on the verge of shattering the last remnants of fighting spirit in people's hearts. Yet the wail that followed immediately pulled their thoughts back. "You will pay for your usurpation!"
Who? Who dared challenge that Giant Dragon that had smashed through the city walls?
What kind of