Seraphine and Loriel stood confused after hearing the receptionist's sudden, absurd words. They were a bit relaxed, seeing it was her—not an immediate threat—but their guard remained up, weapons still ready in their hands.

What is she talking about?

Seraphine opened her mouth, about to ask her to explain what was going on, but her voice cut off mid-breath.

The receptionist had already drifted away, her urgent voice trailing behind her as she ran down the hallway.

"Follow me! Please, just follow!"

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Maya didn't look back. She'd told the travelers about the apocalyptic event—that was all she could spare. She couldn't waste too much time here explaining details. There was also her mother living in the city, elderly and unable to move quickly on her own. She had to reach her and get out of here as fast as possible.

I can't waste time explaining everything. They'll find out for themselves if they just follow me.

Hearing footsteps pounding behind her, she released a small sigh of relief through her labored breathing.

At least they're coming. Thank the gods.

Seraphine and Loriel had decided to follow her. The receptionist's genuine terror was impossible to fake—the wild look in her eyes, the trembling in her voice, the desperation in her movements. It was clear something deadly serious was happening.

As they rushed down the stairs and exited the hotel, stepping onto the cobblestone street, chaos greeted them immediately.

The air hit them like a wave—thick with the acrid tang of burning mana, the coppery scent of spilled blood, and the suffocating stench of fear-sweat that clung to the fleeing masses.

CRASH! BANG! SCREEEECH!

The self-driving carriages were running nonstop, careening wildly through the streets without passengers, their magical propulsion systems going haywire. People were shouting, screaming in absolute terror while running desperately toward the city gates in massive, panicked crowds.

"Move! Get out of the way!"

"My children! Where are my children?!"

"Why is this happening here?!"

"The gods have forsaken us!"

"Please, someone save us!"

Prayers mixed with screams, desperate pleas for salvation alongside raw animal panic. The sound was overwhelming—a cacophony of human fear at its most primal and unfiltered. Aaaaahhhh! Crash! Wham!

Mothers clutched babies to their chests while running. Men pushed past the elderly without shame. Adventurers abandoned their honor and fled like common cowards. The veneer of civilization had shattered completely in mere minutes.

For a moment, Seraphine didn't understand what she was witnessing. She had stopped at a distance where she could still see the receptionist fading into the chaos ahead. Maya didn't stop like them, didn't pause to process this bizarre and chaotic scene—she just kept running with single-minded determination toward wherever her mother lived.

Seraphine stood frozen on the street corner, trying to make sense of the pandemonium unfolding around her.

She murmured to herself, her voice barely audible over the screaming, "What the hell is going on?"

Then she felt a sharp nudge on her arm, accompanied by the trembling voice of Loriel.

"Look there, Seraphine!" The young saintess was pointing toward something in the distance with a shaking hand, her finger trembling so badly it was hard to follow the direction. "Look at that!"

Seraphine followed her direction and saw something that sent chills racing down her spine like ice water. The calm demeanor she'd maintained even during deadly battles was wiped clean from her soul in an instant, replaced by primal unease that made her stomach drop.

In the distance, which seemed impossibly far away—kilometers and kilometers from the city walls, far beyond where her eyes should be able to see clearly—she could make out a silhouette. A giant silhouette of something moving.

Not walking like a normal creature. Not lumbering slowly. Moving with terrible speed, each step covering unfathomable distances that made her mind reel, trying to process the scale.

Thoom... thoom... thoom...

How... how big is that thing?

A strange sensation ran up her legs—a low-frequency vibration deep in the stone beneath her boots, like the heartbeat of the earth itself stuttering in terror. Rrrrrmmm...

The slight relief was there only because she couldn't see it moving toward them.

Then her enhanced hearing caught something specific from the panicked crowd surging past them.

"A world-class monster near our city! Ahhhhh! We're all going to die! Ahhhhh!" The man's voice cracked with hysteria before he was swept away in the stampede.

Another voice, an elderly woman sobbing: "My grandchildren are still at home! I have to—"

The voices were cut off as another earthquake shook the earth violently beneath their feet.

RRRRRMMMBLE! CRACK! BOOOOM!

This time it wasn't just trembling—the ground actually cracked open. Deep fissures spread through the cobblestone streets like black lightning bolts, some wide enough to swallow a person whole. Buildings that had stood strong for decades began to collapse, their foundations compromised by the violent shaking.

CRASH! BOOM! CRRRAAACK!

Stone and timber fell like deadly rain. Dust filled the air, making it hard to breathe. Cough—cough!

Seraphine reacted purely on instinct. She grabbed Loriel's hand firmly, activated her Mana Body Enhancement and Lightning movement technique simultaneously, and pulled them both to relative safety behind a reinforced stone building that looked structurally sound.

Seraphine's muscles clenched with raw energy, her skin tingling sharply as mana surged through her limbs like a live wire.

Whoooosh! Crackle!

They made it just in time, purple lightning trailing behind their rapid movement.

Some people weren't as fortunate. Right in front of Seraphine's eyes—not twenty meters away—a family of three was crushed by falling debris from a collapsing storefront. A massive wooden beam came down first, followed by tons of stone masonry.

CRUNCH! THUD!

Their screams cut off instantly, replaced by terrible silence beneath the rubble. The silence felt louder than a scream. Seraphine's ears rang faintly in the absence of noise, riiiing..., and for a horrifying second, the world seemed to shrink to the twitch of that tiny hand beneath the stone—a final, dying plea the gods had ignored.

Seraphine's breath caught in her throat, horror washing over her.

They were just... running. They were right there, and now...

The thought of a giant monster so far away causing this level of catastrophic destruction here in the city made her realize with crystal clarity how serious the situation truly was. The scale was beyond anything she'd encountered before.

If something that far away can do this, what happens when it gets closer?

And just then, something clicked in her mind with horrible, sickening clarity. The pieces fell into place like a puzzle, revealing a nightmare.

The direction where the giant silhouette was visible, barely discernible on the horizon... and Leon going out earlier to "explore the city".

Her amethyst eyes widened as the connection formed, remembering his mentioning something strange today.

"Thornwood Forest!" she gasped aloud, the words torn from her throat.

Leon is there. Leon is fighting that thing. That's why it is not moving here.

Her heart pounded violently in her chest—thump-thump-thump—torn between the desperate, overwhelming need to reach him, or not be a liability to him.

Loriel looked at her with terrified, confused eyes. "What? What do you mean?"

"Leon went to Thornwood Forest," Seraphine said, her voice strained. "He must have... he knew something was there. And now he's fighting that... that thing."

Another tremor shook the ground, smaller than before but still enough to make them stumble.

RRRUMBLE!

"We have to—" Seraphine started, but stopped herself. What could they do? Rush out there to face a monster that was causing earthquakes from kilometers away? She wasn't even sure they could survive the journey, let alone help Leon fight something of that magnitude.

But I can't just leave him.

Her throat felt dry as ash, her heart pounding against her ribs like a war drum. Thum-thum-thum! Her limbs itched with urgency, but her feet remained rooted to the cracked stone beneath her.

The internal conflict tore at her, visible on her face as emotions warred within her mind.

What do I do...?

Back to Leon.

One minute earlier.

The clash happened with devastating force.

BOOOOOOOM!

The impact sounded like a meteor strike, shaking the air itself. WHOOOOOM!

Dust erupted everywhere, obscuring vision completely in a massive cloud of debris. Leon could see chunks of the monster's rocky body flying around through his spatial awareness—huge boulders torn loose from the impact, each one the size of a house, spinning through the air like deadly projectiles.

CRAAASH! THUD! WHRRR!

Got it! I damaged it!

Still, his expression was far from pleasant as he assessed the situation through his enhanced senses.

The foot came down impossibly fast despite its enormous size—no chance to dodge normally with conventional movement. Physics didn't seem to apply properly to something this massive. He could only teleport himself to the side of the descending foot at the last possible moment, positioning himself to reduce the impact angle, to get hit with less direct force rather than taking the full crushing brunt of two kilometers worth of animated earth and stone.

But even lessened, even redirected, the attack connection was devastating. The destruction he'd managed to inflict on the foot was frustratingly minimal compared to what he'd hoped for—just surface damage, not deep enough.

Not enough. Not nearly enough.

Crrrunch!

The shockwave caught one side of his body despite his evasion. Stone fragments and compressed air hit him like a solid wall. WHAM! This time, the impact struck even harder than before, despite all his preparations and defensive measures.

Ghk—!

Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth as he was sent flying like a ragdoll once again, tumbling through the air without control. Fwoooosh! His whole body shook from the transferred force, bones rattling inside his flesh, organs compressing painfully against his ribcage.

Fuck, that hurt!

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