A shrill buzzing filled his ears.
Kandelian could hear nothing else.
He forced his heavy eyelids open and, with eyes that had been dry for two hundred years, witnessed another wall collapse—
At the edge of his vision, black smoke engulfed the walls of [Wind Sand Islet].
An Ogre smashed through the earthen wall in a single charge. The Trolls entering the city alongside it had only just regrown their arms.
Beastfolk chariots followed close behind, charging into the collapsing lines amid savage roars.
Goblins and Gnolls revealed their short figures in the blowing sand, relentlessly pushing into the narrow streets.
The Hellhounds they had raised barked incessantly, their molten saliva forming blazing fireballs that melted homes around the marketplace.
Young dragon hatchlings advanced toward the last untouched refuge along the coast, spewing five-colored elemental energy onto bricks and walls, ready to claim innocent lives.
Some left corpses behind in death. Others turned to ashes.
No one knew where their souls drifted.
Only gradually did Kandelian hear the clamor of slaughter and panic, dragging him fully back to the reality before him—one night. All it took was one night.
The assembled Beastfolk had effortlessly destroyed the defenses Wind Sand Islet had held for months.
And the defenders had not even lived to see reinforcements arrive.
No, even if the allied army had stood atop Wind Sand Islet's walls, it could not have reversed tonight's inevitable defeat.
Kandelian's deep, far-seeing gaze brought into focus the Devil hovering in midair, stirring up the war—
The Gnome named Damon had abandoned his bloodline, his former glory, and the faith he had held all his life.
Now his skin was shrouded in the scarlet of the inferno. Hideous veins bulged across his enormous head, crowned by two goatlike horns. They made his body look