The Insects (Part One)

Rumble, rumble...

Just a moment ago, the skies above Saint Grand Fort had been clear and sunny. Now, thunder suddenly rumbled.

Rolling dark clouds sprang up, and bolts of lightning danced and leaped through them without pause.

In a short time, the pitch-black clouds wreathed in thunder had formed an enormous ring, encircling the vast Saint Grand Fort with the palace at its center.

The sky darkened.

Buzz...

In response, the palace scholars and advisers immediately activated the palace's super-restriction. Supported by billions of energy crystals, it managed to emit a faint, ghostly glow in the darkness.

Even so, it failed to bring even the slightest sense of security to the Royal Mages and advisers who had activated it.

They gazed up at the sky.

The gigantic ring formed by the dark clouds had an infinitely black, utterly still region at its center. It was like a gaping maw that could swallow all of Saint Grand Fort in a single bite!

The palace, shielded by the restriction they had raised, seemed like a jelly beneath that maw, ready to be overturned at any moment.

Meanwhile...

The tens of thousands of commoners in Saint Grand Fort were also plunged into boundless terror.

"Cataclysmic weapon! The Xilan Duchy has launched a cataclysmic weapon attack!"

Someone suddenly roared in terror.

To the commoners of Saint Grand Fort, cataclysmic weapons were no longer unfamiliar. Scholars and traveling bards had spent years building up their notoriety.

Nearly everyone knew that those mysterious mages had developed a terrifying, enigmatic weapon—a weapon capable of destroying a city in an instant, a weapon that could "destroy the world."

"Ah!!!!"

The end of the world was about to arrive!

The terrified commoners' eyes bulged as they fled in panic.

"Waaah, Mom..."

A carelessly discarded vegetable basket was trampled again