The first thing the soldiers saw was not Erend himself, but the violent rush of wind that tore across the battlefield as he descended.

A powerful gust swept over the plains and forced dust, blood, and loose debris to spread everywhere in spiraling waves. Several reanimated beasts lost their footing from the pressure alone. Torn carcasses rolled through the dirt while broken limbs scattered across the field.

Then Erend dropped directly into the middle of the retreating lines.

His Dragon wings spread wide behind him as his boots struck the ground hard enough to crack the earth beneath his feet. Fire flickered briefly around his body from the force of his landing before fading into drifting embers.

For a split second, both knights and mages froze in shock.

They had never seen anyone like this before. A man with wings now standing in the center of a battlefield filled with the undead beasts that were attacking them.

But Erend did not waste a single moment speaking.

The instant he landed, one of the reanimated wolves lunged toward a terrified mage from the side. Its broken jaw hung loose while dark corruption leaked from between shattered teeth. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Erend moved with incredible speed.

His body blurred forward with terrifying speed. His arm flashed once through the air and the wolf split apart instantly. The remains crashed across the dirt before dark flames erupted from the severed body and consumed it completely.

Unlike before, the corpse did not move again.

Several nearby knights widened their eyes at that.

"It burned…" one of them muttered in disbelief.

Another undead beast rushed from behind a broken boar carcass while dragging half its body through the mud. Erend turned sharply and thrust his hand forward.

A huge torrent of flames exploded in its direction.

The fire struck the creature head-on and swallowed it entirely in a matter of seconds. The corrupted flesh twisted violently inside the blaze before collapsing into blackened ash.

"Move!" Erend shouted toward the retreating soldiers. "Get back behind the walls now!"

His voice snapped the stunned knights and mages out of their shock immediately.

The captains reacted first.

"Retreat while he clears the path!"

"Fall back!"

The formations began moving again at once. Knights tightened their shields around the mages while retreating faster toward the gates. Yet even as they withdrew, many of them kept turning their heads back toward Erend with stunned expressions.

Because everywhere he moved, the undead fell apart from his quick and powerful attacks.

He swept across the battlefield from one position to another with overwhelming speed and strength. One moment he stood near the left flank cutting apart a reanimated serpent before burning it from within. The next moment he already appeared near the center line where several knights had nearly been overwhelmed by crawling carcasses.

His flames spread differently from ordinary fire. They clung to the corrupted flesh itself and not wildly spread.

The dark energy inside the undead beasts reacted violently every time the fire touched them. The corpses convulsed and writhed before finally collapsing completely without rising again.

Hope started rising among the retreating soldiers.

"He's killing them permanently!"

"They're staying down!"

"Who is he?!"

Even the senior mage stared at Erend with visible disbelief while retreating toward the gates under knight escort. The old man could feel the sheer density of power radiating from him even from this distance.

Above the battlements, the king watched silently with widened eyes.

At first he could hardly process what he was seeing.

One man had descended into the middle of chaos and instantly changed the entire battlefield. The undead beasts that had forced his soldiers into desperate retreat were being destroyed one after another with terrifying efficiency.

And that power…

The king narrowed his eyes as he felt the overwhelming Magic radiating from Erend. It was vast beyond comparison, but strangely controlled. It felt ancient and heavy. Like standing before a living force of nature.

But more importantly, Erend was protecting his people.

That alone told him enough.

"He's on our side…" the king muttered quietly.

Below, the final groups of knights and mages finally crossed back through the gates of Leonora. The moment Erend confirmed that everyone had retreated safely behind the walls, he beat his Dragon wings powerfully and launched himself back into the sky.

The battlefield trembled beneath the force of his ascent.

Higher and higher he rose until he hovered above the sea of writhing undead corpses. Below him, thousands of broken Magical beasts still crawled and twisted across the plains while dark corruption pulsed through their ruined flesh.

Erend looked down upon them with cold eyes.

Then fire gathered around him.

At first it appeared as streams of glowing embers circling through the air. But within seconds the flames expanded rapidly into a massive inferno that illuminated the entire battlefield in burning orange light.

Heat washed across the walls of Leonora.

Soldiers shielded their faces instinctively as the air itself became hotter.

The fire behind Erend continued growing larger and larger until it resembled a burning sky hanging above the plains. Waves of flame spiraled around his body while the pressure of his power spread across the battlefield.

Then he lowered one hand and the blazing inferno descended.

A colossal wave of fire crashed downward onto the undead horde like divine punishment. The plains vanished beneath roaring flames instantly. Fire swallowed the writhing corpses whole and spread across the battlefield in every direction.

The undead beasts convulsed violently inside the blaze.

Dark corruption burst from their bodies like black smoke as the flames consumed them completely. Reanimated wolves collapsed into ash. Serpents twisted violently before their massive bodies blackened and crumbled apart. Boars burned from the inside out as the corruption within them detonated beneath the heat.

The entire battlefield became an ocean of fire.

From atop the walls, every soldier stared upward in stunned silence while the flames reflected across their widened eyes.

In the center of that burning sky, Erend hovered above the destruction.

—