For the first time in ages, Icard and the rest finally left the city and returned to the ruins beyond.
The scenery shifted gradually. Reinforced streets gave way to cracked asphalt. Towering barricades and watch posts faded behind them, replaced by skeletal buildings and collapsed structures overtaken by weeds and creeping vines.
Rusted vehicles lay abandoned along the roadside, their frames twisted and half-buried beneath debris.
As the vicinity fell fully behind them, the Maire's territory weakened.
The invisible pressure that had once wrapped the land began to thin, like fog dispersing under the sun.
Lower grade spawns were completely unable to approach the Maire's influence.
Higher grade ones could enter slightly, but they always stopped far from the city gate.
If a spawn appeared near the gate, it would almost certainly be an A grade, a B grade, or a particularly dangerous high C grade.
