The Curtain Rises

Meanwhile, on a certain black plain.

The "black" here was not the shroud of night, but the result of excessive dark elemental particles saturating the soil, causing all vegetation to take on the deathly stillness of charred coal after prolonged radiation.

Thick crimson clouds blanketed the sky as they swept rapidly across the plain.

They were not naturally condensed water vapor, but some sort of semi-gaseous, semi-liquid aggregate formed from countless tiny, active blood cells under a high-pressure magical field.

Wherever the clouds, like clotted masses of filthy blood, passed, the force field warped violently.

The weak creatures roaming the plain below—the Black-armored Rats and Corrosion Worms that had long adapted to the harsh environment—now faced utter catastrophe.

Before they could even flee, the blood vessels inside them burst in an instant. As though summoned by some higher law, all the blood in their bodies seeped from their pores and cracks in their skin, defying gravity.

"Pop, pop, pop..."

Fine, dense bursts merged into one. They died soundlessly, without even time to scream. Only death and despair spread.

To wizards, this was the harvesting of "resources"—cold, efficient, and utterly without mercy.

Within the crimson clouds, a flesh monster over four meters tall sprinted forward with a cold expression. Its entire body looked as though it had been flayed alive, leaving only exposed tendons and muscles that had congealed into the shape of grotesque armor.

Rufus, the wizard who had modified his own body into the form of a Flesh Golem, was currently in an extremely dangerous state of energy overload.

His crimson muscle fibers writhed across his body like living snakes, every contraction accompanied by sprays of dark red vapor.

He was like an immensely powerful magnet born to draw in blood. The blood seeping from the creatures forcibly drained