One ferocious giant dragon after another stepped through the gate, their enormous bodies blotting out the sky above the palace.
They opened their bloodthirsty maws and unleashed deafening roars.
The earth split apart without end.
The city walls collapsed beneath the dragons' roars.
The soldiers slumped to the ground, their weapons falling from their hands, yet no one moved to pick them up.
Princess Hisui stared blankly at everything before her.
She had thought the power beyond the gate would destroy the dragons.
But what emerged from it was not hope.
It was dragon after dragon.
"How could this..."
Hisui's legs gave out.
She fell to her knees, finally realizing in despair.
The calamity of ten thousand dragons was never an invasion from the outside world. It was unleashed by the Eclipse Gate itself.
Rumble!
The entire city of Crocus suddenly shook.
The streets split open.
The buildings swayed.
Before the palace, the first dragon to emerge from the Eclipse Gate raised a foreclaw and casually swiped at the ground.
Golden scales glinted coldly beneath the blood-red moonlight.
The next second, an immense force slammed into the earth.
Bang!
The ground split from the front of the palace all the way into the city.
A ravine hundreds of meters long formed in an instant.
The streets, stone walls, and houses along its path were all torn apart.
A row of buildings toppled into the chasm.
Boulders rolled down, and dust billowed into the sky.
The tremors reached the central plaza.
"Defend!"
Freed pressed both hands to the ground.
The defensive spell formations prepared in advance lit up at the same time.
Several layers of light shields protected the major guilds.
But the instant the crack struck the defensive line, the outermost formation shattered on the spot.
Then came the second