Battle

Between the towering ancient trees, a few stray shafts of sunlight fell across a portal glowing with blue runes.

The adventurers and Imperial Army soldiers had come from the Arad Continent to explore the Dimensional Gate that had abruptly appeared toward the West Coast, following a friend's tip. None of them had imagined that such a world lay beyond it.

It resembled a mirror image of Arad, with landscapes and things from before the Great Metastasis, yet much of it differed from what they had seen in Arad.

To the east stood a tower that pierced the clouds, connecting Arad to Sky City. It had once been a forbidden land of magic.

To the west lay the Abyss, the dark elves' ruins, where ancient tales were whispered through countless nights.

Herds of Sky Veil Behemoths soared overhead. On the back of every one lay an abandoned ancient city, its walls broken, its old branches tangled with vines.

The locations, numbers, and sizes were utterly unlike the Arad of the past. There were even things here that had appeared only after the Great Metastasis.

After setting up camp and investigating, they discovered that time flowed at a completely different rate here than on the Arad Continent. Farther out, chaotic black fog shrouded the land and prevented them from exploring further.

They also found ancient stone tablets bearing writing similar to that of the Ancient Demon World. Once deciphered, the tablets appeared to describe a terrifying existence called the Ten Thousand Worlds Devourers.

Once-great beings had fallen, while evil beings had become holy. Yet they had all joined forces to devour countless different universes and fold them into a new universe of their own making.

On the fountain wall in an identical Helmutton Square, they found strange writing and symbols they could