At Patriot's battle cry, the Shieldguards raised their shields as one and advanced with him at their spearhead.
A black tide of steel rolled toward the black forest.
Their synchronized steps and united resolve left no doubt: anything in their path would be crushed without mercy.
"So this is your answer..."
To Patriot's response, Gorth had only one reply—
"Utterly boring."
Against that slow, relentless tide of black, the shadow beneath Gorth's feet spread rapidly.
The darkness moved so fast that, before the Shieldguards could react, it had reached their front line.
Patriot raised his halberd at once. His cannibalistic witchcraft coiled around it as he watched for tentacles that might strike from the shadows.
But...
"What's that?" Big Bear's cry snapped Patriot's attention upward.
He looked up and saw a sight that shook him to his core.
"The forest... the forest's moving!" a Shieldguard shouted.
The forest was moving.
Before their eyes, the black trees twisted from within and broke apart into countless thick branches.
They plunged into the ground and surged along the spreading shadow, straight toward the tide of steel!
Each time the branches leapt from the shadow, they swelled at an impossible speed.
By the time they reached the Shieldguards' formation, they had become a wall of towering trees.
A question!
Across the pure-white snowfield, an endless black wall advanced toward you.
It could not be broken. It could not be stopped.
What was it?
The answer—
[Death]
BOOM—!!!!
The black torrent of trees slammed into the steel barrier. There was no stalemate. The Shieldguards' line shattered instantly.
Before that force of nature, the Shieldguards were paper boats in a tsunami. Heavy tower shields warped, while soldiers were hurled away, swept up, and dragged into the dark!
Amid the black tide, only one massive figure still