"This world had slept for far too long."
A small, frail skeleton clicked its brittle jaw as it slowly walked through the empty, desolate darkness. Its skull was pitch-black, carrying the scorched smell of charcoal fire; chains as thick as arms wound between its withered ribs, passed over its shoulder blades, hung down behind it, and stretched onward until they vanished into the endless dark.
It was as though it wore a tattered cloak woven from iron chains.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The chains scraped against the sand and gravel with an exceptionally grating sound that carried far, far through this sealed world. Yet even so, its hoarse, low voice still echoed across the wilderness:
"...This world had truly slept for far too long, far too long... Oh, the stench of despair and hatred everywhere... It was truly intoxicating."
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The dragging chains scraped out tiny sparks amid the gravel, like ornaments adorning its cloak. As they flickered in and out, they illuminated the towering, vicious yet obedient figures surrounding the small skeleton.
Clack.
The footsteps stopped, and the sparks no longer flashed. The small skeleton slowly turned its skull, and two extremely dim scarlet lights lit up within its hollow eye sockets.
"Rude fellow." It looked at a skeleton on its right.
It was the remains of a Dark Elf, its bones slender and black, silver hair falling from its skull—a skeleton with hair was an exceedingly rare thing, so the small skeleton had always cherished this collectible.
But now, the way it looked at the Dark Elf was as though someone had stolen its collection. Its tone was somewhat irritated. "...What is it?"
The Dark Elf took several steps forward. With every step, a patch of dense, bone-chilling White Frost was left beneath her feet; with every