The work had gone on long enough that the battlefield no longer felt like a place of war, but something quieter and more disturbing.

The mages moved between corpses with steady hands. Their earlier hesitation buried beneath routine now, while the knights stood guard in loose formations around them with their constant vigilance but no longer strained like before when the battle was still raging.

The air carried the heavy scent of blood and burned Magic. The sounds of cutting and scraping blended into a dull unpleasant rhythm that no one spoke about anymore.

Then something broke that rhythm.

One of the younger mages, stationed near the outer edge of the field, had been working on a wolf-beast that had already been opened from chest to abdomen.

He had collected several samples and sealed them carefully following every procedure as he had been taught. But as he reached to store one final tube, something inside it caught his attention.

At first, he thought it was his imagination or a trick of light or lingering Magic. However, when he lifted the tube closer, the piece of flesh inside shifted again slowly, as if it still held life despite the body it came from lying dead in the dirt.

He frowned and leaned closer. His breath slowed as worry started to crept in. The flesh did not twitch like something dying. It writhed with subtle but undeniable movements, and beneath its surface a faint dark glow pulsed unevenly.

The moment he focused on it, the sensation struck him in a quiet but overwhelming in its wrongness. He felt a presence that did not belong to the land, the air, or anything he had ever studied in this world. It felt distant and cold, like something pressing in from beyond the edges of the world.

His eyes widened immediately at that moment.

He did not need time to analyze it. He did not need comparison or theory. The power of that foreign energy made the truth obvious the instant he felt it. That realization sent a sharp chill through him.

"This... this isn’t right..." he muttered under his breath.

Then he turned and ran.

"Senior!" he shouted, his voice breaking as panic rose through it. "Senior!"

The older mage turned immediately at the sound. He had heard enough voices in his life to recognize the difference between concern and alarm of danger, and this was unmistakably the latter.

His expression sharpened as the younger mage rushed toward him and thrust the sealed tube forward with shaking hands.

"Look at this!" the younger mage said quickly. "It’s still moving, and the energy inside it... it’s not from here."

The senior mage took the tube without hesitation and studied it closely. For a moment his face remained unreadable. His focus narrowed as he examined the writhing flesh and the faint glow beneath its surface, but then he felt it. That same presence brushed against his senses, cold and distant, carrying no trace of anything native to their world.

His eyes hardened as understanding settled into place.

"So it really has begun this far," he said quietly.

The younger mage swallowed. "This is what they warned us about, isn’t it?"

The senior mage gave a slow nod, his gaze lifting briefly toward the vast field of corpses around them.

"This is not dark Magic from our world. Not even the deepest forbidden arts leave a signature like this. This comes from beyond our realm, and it has already taken hold inside these creatures."

Before he could continue, another voice called out from the distance.

"I found the same thing over here!"

Then another voice answered from a different direction, followed by more in quick succession as the realization spread through the field.

"There’s strange moving flesh here!"

"This one has it as well!"

Mages across the battlefield began raising containers and pointing at opened corpses, their earlier reluctance replaced with growing alarm as more signs of the same corruption revealed themselves. The flesh that moved where it should have remained still. Veins darkened and pulsed faintly beneath exposed muscle. The same unnatural energy appeared again and again, spreading through the remains like a hidden infection.

The senior mage felt the weight of it immediately. It was everywhere.

His expression hardened. His voice cut sharply through the rising confusion.

"Stop everything!" he ordered. "All teams fall back! Return to the walls now!"

The response was immediate. The knights stepped forward and tightened their formation as they began to escort the mages away from the corpses, while tools were abandoned and samples hastily sealed.

What had been an organized operation turned into quick retreat as urgency replaced their curiosity. Even the most composed among them moved faster than before.

But as they retreated back to the wall something else began to happen.

At first, it was only a sound, low and wet, barely noticeable beneath the shuffle of boots and the clink of armor. However, it did not belong to anything alive on that field. It came from the ground itself, from the bodies they had just been examining, and it grew louder with each passing second.

One of the wolf-beasts jerked violently, its body convulsing where it lay. A serpent’s massive coil shifted across the dirt, dragging against the ground with unnatural force. A boar’s leg scraped forward in slow and uneven movement, as if pulled by something.

Then more followed.

All across the battlefield, the corpses began to move again.

A knight froze in the middle of his step as the body beside him twitched again with stronger movement.

A mage stumbled back and dropped his tools as the carcass writhed beneath his feet.

The stillness of death shattered completely as motion spread through the fallen horde like a waking nightmare.

"They’re moving again!" someone shouted.

Panic broke through the lines at once.

What had been a field of victory only moments ago had become a nightmare. As the first of the dead beasts forced their broken bodies to rise again, the truth settled over them all with crushing clarity.

The battle had never truly ended.

—