Valther City, the capital of the Eastern Marquessate, was a bastion of order.
White walls reinforced with runes.
Arcane towers watching over the horizon.
Academies where hundreds of mages studied every year.
Temples.
Markets.
Thousands of people living under the protection of a city that had withstood wars, invasions, and disasters for generations.
That night, everything was functioning as usual.
Until the watchmen saw the horizon.
"What is that?"
One of them narrowed his eyes.
At first, it looked like a storm.
A dark mass slowly advancing through the shadows of the forest.
But there were no clouds.
It was too low.
Too fast.
"Is anyone else seeing that?"
The captain of the guard climbed the tower steps.
He looked toward the horizon.
And his expression changed.
"No…"
The mass was approaching.
With every passing second, more silhouettes became visible.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
"Monsters!"
The cry spread across the walls.
"All to your positions! ACTIVATE THE RUNE TOWERS!"
The runes on the walls began to glow.
One after another.
Mana coursed through the defensive structures as the arcane towers aimed toward the forest.
Then the horde entered their range.
Deer with mana-saturated bodies raced at the front.
Enormous boars tore through trees as they advanced.
Wolves ran among them, their eyes glowing in the darkness.
They didn't seem to be attacking.
They were fleeing.
But to those defending Valther, the distinction mattered little.
"FIRE!"
The towers fired.
Dozens of magical projectiles tore through the sky.
The first line of monsters disappeared beneath a rain of explosions.
The soldiers cheered.
"It worked!"
"Keep firing!"
But the relief lasted only a few seconds.
The runes began to flicker.
One of the towers launched a projectile that warped in midair.
The energy twisted in on itself.
And exploded.
BOOM.
The shockwave shook the walls.
"What the hell…?"
Another projectile was fired.
This time, it disintegrated before reaching the monsters.
A technician paled as he watched the instruments.
"The mana density is increasing!"
"How much?"
"Too much!"
The runes on one of the towers began to crack.
"They can't process it!"
Another tower exploded.
The soldiers staggered backward.
"The towers are collapsing!"
"Reinforce the circuits!"
The mages rushed toward the platforms.
They tried to stabilize the flow.
But the mana was no longer obeying them.
A female mage raised both hands.
"Elemental Control!"
A burst of flame appeared before her.
For an instant, it seemed to stabilize.
Then it warped.
The explosion hurled her several meters backward.
"I CAN'T CONTROL IT!"
She fell unconscious.
Another mage tried to intervene.
His spell exploded before it could even be completed.
"RETREAT!" the archmage shouted. "ABANDON THE TOWERS!"
But the first line of monsters had already reached the walls.
The boars charged.
CRAAASH.
The gates trembled.
The deer slammed into the defenses with light-covered antlers.
The wolves began climbing.
And then the Rune Knights sprang into action.
"SHIELDS FORWARD!"
Hundreds of soldiers poured into the streets.
"FORMATION!"
The rune shields locked together.
A barrier appeared before them.
The first monsters crashed into it.
Mana-infused spears pierced their bodies.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Fifty.
The formation held.
"HOLD THE LINE!"
But the horde didn't end.
They kept coming.
The boars broke through the barricades.
The wolves scattered through the streets.
The deer leaped over the defenses.
A house collapsed.
Then another.
"HELP!"
A woman ran through the rubble with a little girl in her arms.
"My daughter is hurt!"
A knight pushed her behind the formation.
"To the shelter!"
"I can't!"
"GO!"
A roar answered from the street.
The knight turned.
A mana-covered boar was charging toward them.
He raised his shield.
BOOM.
The creature hurled him against a wall.
"COMMANDER!"
The battle descended into chaos.
Then…
Everything fell silent.
Not for long.
Only for a second.
A second that lasted far too long.
The monsters stopped advancing.
The soldiers stopped shouting.
Even the smallest animals seemed to have forgotten how to move.
A roar came from the forest.
Deep.
Unnatural.
The soldiers' blood ran cold.
Something was approaching.
The trees began to fall.
One after another.
Then it appeared.
A black feline, dark as obsidian, leaped onto a rune tower and brought it down with a single swipe of its claws.
Behind it came a gigantic serpent covered in a blue aura that crushed the streets beneath its body.
And then…
A two-headed wolf emerged from among the trees.
Dark mist escaped from its jaws.
The soldiers' magical instruments began blaring alarms.
"Level sixty…"
The technician swallowed.
"Seventy…"
Another crystal shattered.
"Eighty…"
No one answered.
These were not ordinary monsters.
They were Apex.
The true predators of the new world.
"RETREAT!"
A soldier dropped his spear.
"THE WALLS WON'T HOLD!"
A roar answered.
The two-headed wolf advanced.
Then the ground trembled.
Once.
Again.
And again.
The soldiers looked toward the forest.
It wasn't a monster running.
It was something walking.
Every step made the city vibrate.
The air grew heavy.
Mana crystals began to shatter.
Some soldiers fell to their knees.
Others could barely breathe.
The lesser monsters began to flee.
Even the Apex creatures moved aside.
Something appeared between the trees.
It was enormous.
Its body was covered in shadows so dense that they distorted the space around it.
Two eyes glowed in the darkness.
The mana emanating from the creature was so intense that the runes on the walls began to go dark.
A soldier stared at it, paralyzed.
"That…"
His voice trembled.
"That isn't a creature."
The beast raised one of its paws.
The shadow it cast over the city covered several buildings.
A woman hugged her child.
A priest fell to his knees.
"Pray!"
The priests began invoking barriers.
"The gods will protect us!"
The seals appeared.
And shattered.
One after another.
The priest stared at his hands.
"No…"
The creature raised its claw.
Valther was seconds away from disappearing.
Then…
The sky split open.
A pillar of light descended from the clouds.
The impact shook the entire city.
The shadows recoiled.
The runes on the walls lit up once more.
The chaotic mana began to stabilize.
The monsters stopped.
And a voice echoed throughout Valther.
"Valther City! Hold your ground! Help has arrived!"
Thousands of people looked up.
Four figures descended from the light.
The first touched down.
Emily.
The Light Hero.
A white radiance enveloped her body.
Around her, the mana stopped behaving like a storm.
It stabilized.
The civilians nearby were able to breathe again.
Emily raised her gaze toward the creature.
"As long as I remain standing…"
The light spread across the square.
"…this city will not fall."
A roar answered.
But this time, no one stepped back.
A second figure fell from the sky.
The impact sent a wave of dust into the air.
Alejandro.
The Fire Hero.
Golden flames enveloped his body.
He slammed his fist into the ground.
A wall of fire appeared before the monsters.
"Come on!"
He smiled.
"Try getting through this!"
The stampede crashed into the flames.
Fire illuminated the city.
A third figure descended, surrounded by electricity.
Leonardo.
The Lightning Hero.
Lightning raced along his arms.
He drove one hand into the ground.
An electric barrier spread through the streets.
"No one gets through."
The monsters that tried to cross it were hurled backward.
And then the last one arrived.
Kara.
The Strength Hero.
She didn't fall from the sky.
She simply descended.
No explosions.
No flames.
No lightning.
She even looked small beside the other three.
Slender.
Calm.
Almost fragile.
But when her feet touched the ground…
CRACK.
The stones beneath her fractured.
Kara raised her gaze.
The Omega creature watched her from the other side of the square.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Kara walked toward it.
One step.
Another.
The monster took a step backward.
Just one.
The soldiers stood frozen.
Kara tilted her head slightly.
"You came to the wrong place."
The creature roared.
Kara smiled.
"If you were looking for easy prey…"
She clenched her fist.
"…you chose the wrong city."
The citizens began to cry.
Not from fear.
From relief.
A mother embraced her child.
An old man fell to his knees.
The soldiers raised their weapons.
The priests watched in silence.
Minutes earlier, their barriers had been useless.
Their prayers had failed to stop the monsters.
Now four young heroes stood before the horde.
And they were forcing it back.
"They're here…"
"The heroes…"
"The heroes have arrived!"
A woman's voice broke.
"They'll save us."
Someone else replied:
"The gods sent them."
The phrase spread.
First among a few.
Then among dozens.
Then among hundreds.
"The gods saved us!"
"The gods sent the heroes!"
People began to cry, embrace one another, and pray.
The priests joined them.
This time, no one had to ask them to do so.
And as the heroes fought the creatures that had nearly destroyed Valther, something invisible began to rise from the city.
Prayers.
Gratitude.
Hope.
Faith.
Hundreds of thousands of thoughts directed toward the same beings.
Toward the gods.
Somewhere far beyond the mortal world, a small stream of light had just begun to rise.