On the city wall of the royal capital, Gorman watched with excitement as the city below was engulfed in a sea of fire. She spread her arms wide, a look of intoxication on her face as she sighed,
“Ah... What a beautiful sight...”
Although there had been a minor hiccup along the way, and her chest still throbbed with a dull ache, it didn't hinder the smooth progression of the plan.
“Daschi, look! The Ranchiloko Dynasty's flames of vengeance are burning bright. But this is only the beginning. One day, all our enemies will be burned to ashes by these flames!”
Standing quietly behind her, Ignatius's face flickered with a trace of pain, but he quickly regained his composure. He stepped forward, gazing at the burning capital, and nodded.
“Yes, everything is as you wish, Your Highness.”
“Right? More than fifty years ago, I said this plan would work, but you strongly opposed it back then. Still, this isn't enough. Far from enough.”
She spoke excitedly, her face a mask of pure madness. After staring from the wall for a long moment, she tilted her head and asked Ignatius,
“Right now, more than half of the high-level professionals in the capital are dead or injured, and the survivors can't organize an effective counterattack. The nearby armies are still hours away. What do you think would happen if an Abyssal Rift suddenly opened up right now?”
At those words, struggle and pain once again washed over Ignatius's face.
Seeing this, Gorman patted his shoulder with displeasure.
“Don't be so serious. Isn't it great to embrace the power of the Abyss? Human bodies are far too weak, always getting hurt so easily.”
These words made Ignatius's pain deepen, but it didn't last long before he returned to a state of calm. Bowing slightly to Gorman with an expressionless face, he responded mechanically,
“Yes, Your Highness. The power of the Abyss is indeed formidable. I... like it very much.”
“That's more like it.”
Gorman nodded in satisfaction, turning back around as she continued,
“Watch closely. Next is the real show.”
As if to prove her words, the moment she finished speaking, several pillars of dark-black light shot into the sky from the mountains surrounding the capital, converging and swirling above the city.
The mana in the entire region began to violently fluctuate, and an unnatural power filled with despair and dread began to pour down from the sky.
Hogg, who was busy putting out fires all over the capital, suddenly snapped his head up to look at the bizarre, swirling mass of darkness in the sky. Alarm bells rang wildly in his mind.
Although he didn't know what it was, an instinct kept warning him that something extremely dangerous was coming.
The accompanying Imperial Guards noticed Hogg's unusual behavior, and one of them stepped forward to ask,
“Lord Royal Preceptor, what is wrong?”
At the same time, the guard followed his gaze upward. In the next second, the guard's eyes widened. An inexplicable pressure descended, forcing him back several steps.
Seeing this, Hogg hesitated no longer. He soared into the sky, raising his staff to unleash a full-power strike at the bizarre mass.
【Four-Element Burst】 scored a direct hit, but it had absolutely no effect.
The black cloud, though blown apart, instantly reformed.
Hogg did not stop. He tried various other spells, but the results were all the same. Every magical attack felt like punching the air, completely useless.
His brow furrowed deeper and deeper. Looking at the black mist, which was growing larger and swirling faster, he actually felt a profound sense of helplessness for the first time in his life.
The abyssal mana was constantly corroding his heart, will, and spirit.
Just as he fell into a dilemma, a fiery red figure shot into the sky from the direction of the embassy, plunging headfirst into the black mist.
In the next second, blue mana erupted, slicing the black mist in two like a giant sword. It actually seemed to disperse the darkness slightly.
However, once the blue mana faded, the black mist rapidly gathered again, becoming even denser than before.
“Is this thing indestructible?”
Riding her dragon, Venus arrived by Hogg's side, staring solemnly at the black mist. Hogg wasn't surprised by her appearance. He simply nodded and sighed.
“For now, yes.”
Venus looked at him, somewhat curious.
“You don't seem very anxious. What? Do you have a backup plan?”
Hogg was taken aback, looking at her in confusion.
“Lady Sage, what do you mean by that? How could I have a backup plan?”
He was anxious, of course he was. But the problem was that panicking wouldn't help.
Hearing this, Venus also showed a strange expression and asked,
“Then why haven't you ordered everyone to evacuate yet?”
“Evacuate? Why? The situation in the capital hasn't reached that point yet, has it?”
Though things were chaotic and the losses were heavy, the kingdom's forces would arrive soon. Suppressing this riot was only a matter of time.
Venus grew even more puzzled. She turned to look at the black mist, then back at Hogg, a highly improbable possibility flashing through her mind.
She spoke with hesitation, her tone uncertain.
“Royal Preceptor... You don't actually know what that thing in the sky is, do you?”
Hogg blinked, sensing that the Great Sage in front of him seemed to know something.
“Do you know what it is, Lady Sage?”
This question made Venus freeze. She stared at Hogg for a long moment, took a deep breath, and shouted in disbelief,
“That is the precursor to an Abyssal Rift! An Abyssal Rift! What on earth have you been doing with your two hundred years of life?!”
“An Abyssal Rift?”
Hogg stared at Venus in shock. Her expression told him she wasn't joking, but something felt wrong—didn't Abyssal Rifts always appear on the ground?
He immediately pressed further.
“How is that possible? Can a rift actually appear in the sky?”
“How did you even reach the Heroic Spirit rank?! Did practicing magic rot your brain?! Have you ever actually read the historical records?!”
Venus was furious, her chest heaving violently. Her head throbbed with pain, but she held back her temper and quickly explained the reason.
“Under normal circumstances, Abyssal Rifts only appear underground. But if someone uses a specific method to connect to the Abyss, it can appear anywhere—including the sky!”
Now Hogg understood. He also realized what had triggered his earlier sense of dread.
He immediately turned to order an evacuation, but before he could act, the sky changed once more.
The swirling black mist suddenly ground to a halt. Then, a dark purple mana burst from the center of the mist, spreading outward like rapidly cracking glass.
Once the cracks joined together to form a complete web—
The sky shattered.
The rift slowly expanded.
And beyond the rift, countless abyssal monsters stood ready.
They roared, howled, and clawed at the air, ready to pour out of the rift and descend upon the world at any moment.
Rate on N.U.
