Smoke smoldering into the sky.

The heavens were grey and filled with the terrible rancor of burning corpses and blood.

Wiping the sweat and gore from his face, Li let out an exhausted sigh. As it turned out, tearing down a horde of a thousand rabid mutant creatures was rather hard work.

"Good job out there."

Long hair waving in the wind, Jenny didn’t look like she had exerted herself at all despite having significant impact in the battle.

Li couldn’t stop a dissatisfied grumble from leaking out,

"I’m tired of getting covered in blood after every fight."

"Suck it up." Sue said with a snort as she walked up to them.

Her eyes scanned the battlefield and her nose wrinkled,

"This is a rather messy sight."

Li sighed, "I’ve spoken with Hunter. There will be a team coming in for cleanup soon."

Jenny nodded. Then she turned to the side. Spear balanced on his shoulder, Blaze had a calm expression on his face as he walked forward, dressed in blood soaked armor.

Sue took a step back and covered her nose,

"You smell rancid as well."

Blaze raised a brow and glanced at Li.

Li sighed and shook his head,

"Forgive my rude little sister."

"Who are you calling rude?!"

Blaze sighed,

"Well, I do not keep grudges. I’m here to ask you if you noticed something strange about these creatures."

Li frowned for a moment.

Before he could reply, an explosion rocked the world around them.

A barrier appeared instantly, shielding them from the bloody debris that was thrown into the air wildly,

"What was that?!" Li said with a frown as he turned to the side.

"Help! We need a little help here!" Haru cried out in a panic.

All five of the radiant {Golden Angel Battlesuit} armors were sparking ominously, with one of them actively burning with terrifying crimson flames.

"Shit." Li cursed as he rushed forward.

A few minutes later, the five Beastmen crafters lay on the ground, panting heavily whilst the others surrounded them.

Blaze’s face was dark as he walked up to Haru,

"What the hell was that?!"

Hair chuckled nervously,

"Well. They are just prototypes. This is the first time these designs have ever been tested in battle. It is only natural we might have a few... accidents."

Blaze pursed his lips then glanced behind the five nervously grinning idiots.

All five battlesuits were enveloped in flames.

Haru quickly obstructed his view,

"T-the flames will go out on their own. No need to worry at all."

Blaze sighed then turned to Li who had a subdued smile hanging from his lips.

Li cleared his throat as his expression became more serious,

"Yes, I did notice something about the mutant creatures."

Haru nodded,

"They seemed way more violent than usual. Do you think it was because of... that thing?"

"That thing, huh..." Jenny muttered, her eyes narrowed.

Li turned to face her,

"Did you know exactly what it was?"

Jenny hesitated for a moment before shaking her head,

"It looked like a powerful Mutant Creature, but judging from what happened after we attacked, I believe it is anything but normal."

Li sighed then turned to Blaze,

"Looks like we have something more to report back to HQ."

Blaze nodded then turned back to Haru.

He hesitated for a moment,

"The suits worked well. You did a good job. Although..."

Haru snorted out a laugh as he waved dismissively,

"These were just prototypes. I’m not sad about them at all. In fact, their destruction has given me a lot to think about." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Indeed. Their destruction was inevitable. Although I believe finding less active catalysts will be rather difficult in the future." Simeon said with furrowed brows.

"Nothing wey can do for now." Furio said with a shrug.

"Eh? What’s this? Having a little tea party without yours truly? That’s quite mean, isn’t it?"

All heads turned in the direction of the billowing smoke.

Eyes concealed by his magic goggles and magic cannon/sniper on his shoulder, Vincent did look like a rather strange-looking ranger.

Jenny smiled,

"It’s been a while, Vince."

The arrogant smile on Vincent’s face melted away to reveal a rather idiotic, grovelling smile,

"My, my... The beautiful lady Jenny has decided to grace us all with her glorious visage. Men, now and worship this sig— ack!"

Pulling his fist back, Blaze glanced behind the curled fatty.

Manny had a wide, satisfied grin on his face while Calio’s tired expression showed that he had seen better days.

"I-I guess this counts as a successful mission, right?" Calio stuttered.

Li nodded, "Not quite. I still need to get a shower."

"We managed to defend the wall. I’ll call that a job well done." Stan said with a smile.

"Yeah, we did. But I can’t help but feel this will not be the end." Li said with a sigh.

***

In the far distance, on the continent of Aderra...

Sitting at the very edge of a verdant sea of green was a rather large town.

The town had not always been this large, but with the expansion of the world, its boundaries had also seemingly expanded as well.

There were no physical indicators of the town’s expansion, other than a few buildings that were still standing on the outskirts of the town.

However, most of the building at the edge and within the town were already completely devoured by nature,

It was located at least a thousand kilometers away from the very edge of Valestorm, but it was much closer to City Z compared to any other City.

For the most part, this town was completely infested with wildlife in the form of Mutant Creatures of all shapes and sizes.

Surprisingly, most of these mutant creatures did not attack one another.

Something like this should be completely impossible as the mutant creatures did not magically cultivate energy.

They needed to eat if they were to be able to function.

And they did eat.

Within the town, there were millions of strange plants sprouting from cracks in the ground and walls.

These plants possessed a single stalk covered in crimson veins. On a single plant, there were dozens of vibrant black fruits hanging off.

A mutant creature with the face of an owl, the body of a horse and the horns of a stag walked up to one of these plants and casually bit one off.

This creature normally preferred the taste of the blood and flesh of smaller mutant beasts. However, it seemed completely uninterested in those at the moment, eating every single one of the black, fist-sized before lazily walking back into a shaded corner to sleep

As it slumbered, its body produced rather strange cracks and tearing sounds as its monstrous features became even more pronounced.

The sound of wings flapping...

A massive shadow descended.

The sound of footsteps cut through the relatively quite atmosphere.

A woman dressed in a rather revealing one-piece battlesuit walked towards the creature.

In the depths of her eyes, strange runes swam, and on her porcelain like skin, various complicated runic tattoos existed.

Her beauty was as stunning as it was ominous.

She stared down at the slumbering creature. The corner of her lips rose into a devilish smile.

All around the town, and in the area surrounding it, there were hundreds of thousands more of similarly slumbering creatures, each one just as monstrous, if not more...