Public Execution

"Follow me!"

After rescuing the target, Cain, and "assisting" the students in taking down several bosses along the way, the group fought their way out of Tristram, only to have their path blocked by a demon-corrupted forest.

As fresh life approached, withered ancient trees actually came back to life, struggling to wrench their thick roots from the soil. Waving countless heavy branches, they transformed into decayed Fallen Treants and lumbered forward to block the way.

At the same time, vines on the ground began to grow relentlessly, tunneling through the earth like mad pythons. They had once been the companions of the Druids of the "Ennead faction."

But during the previous disaster, the local Druids had been attacked simultaneously and vanished without a trace. Naturally, these plants had been corrupted.

Countless demon-corrupted venomous insects also charged forward in endless waves. Dense swarms of "Bristle Rats" surged through the gaps between treants and vines like a gray carpet. Except this moving "carpet" was covered in spikes, enough to leave a person riddled with holes!

There were also all manner of giant mutated spiders, Soul Wolves missing limbs, savage bears—and several staggering figures at the rear, draped in bark coats and wearing wolf-head helmets.

Clearly, the inhabitants of this Black Forest had not escaped the demons' slaughter, corruption, and fall. They had surrounded the city completely.

But as a great writer had once said, there had never been roads in this world; when enough people walked them, they became roads.

So—

Crackle, crackle!

The paladin Haruka strode forward as the spearhead, lightning spreading from his body.

Wave after wave of lightning poured across the ground like spilled mercury, spreading and covering everything in all directions as it engulfed the incoming demonic monsters.

The smallest demon-corrupted insects had no power to resist and