The following days became a relentless cycle of tension and destruction across all five kingdoms.

The attacks never truly stopped.

One day it was hordes of corrupted Magical beasts charging out from forests and mountains like rabid creatures driven by madness. The next day strange anomalies appeared without warning. Entire sections of land suddenly warped unnaturally while rivers changed direction overnight or storms filled with distorted Magic swallowed villages beneath skies that cracked like broken glass.

Sometimes the corruption rose directly from beneath the earth itself.

No kingdom escaped it anymore.

Leonora suffered repeated attacks against its outer territories while neighboring kingdoms reported entire convoys disappearing into spatial distortions that should not have existed naturally.

Cities reinforced their walls. Armies remained mobilized constantly. Even civilians slowly realized that the world itself had started changing into something unstable and dangerous.

And during all of it, the Dragonborn continued moving from kingdom to kingdom without rest.

Erend repeatedly appeared wherever the corruption escalated beyond what ordinary defenders could handle.

Sometimes he arrived in the middle of burning battlefields to destroy massive corrupted beasts before they could break through city walls. Other times he descended from the sky to stabilize collapsing anomalies that threatened to consume entire regions.

Eccar fought in the northern territories where dimensional fractures had started opening repeatedly across frozen lands.

Aesa traveled through kingdoms plagued by unstable storms and waves of corrupted Magic that twisted the environment. Sylven vanished into locations even the Archmages barely understood before reappearing only when disasters threatened to spiral out of control.

Again and again, the Dragonborn intervened alongside the defenders of the five kingdoms.

The kings, knights, mages, and soldiers gradually stopped seeing them as distant legends. They became the figures who appeared whenever their despair grew too overwhelming. They were the ones who stood at the center of catastrophes that ordinary people could barely survive.

But even the Dragonborn understood that fighting endlessly like this could not continue forever.

The true solution still rested with the Archmages.

Deep within their isolated towers and hidden halls, the five Archmages continued their research without pause.

Days blurred into nights while ancient tomes piled higher around them. Countless theories failed before being rewritten again from the beginning. Their entire chambers filled with glowing calculations and experimental arrays dedicated to only one purpose.

Rewriting the Sky Anchor. Not destroying it, or sealing it, but to changing it.

They needed to force the Sky Anchor to align with their intended purpose so it would stop acting as a gateway and source of instability for the corruption spreading into their world. The task itself bordered on impossible. The deeper they worked, the more they realized the Sky Anchor had never been designed for mortal understanding in the first place.

And yet they continued anyway.

Weeks passed beneath constant pressure.

Kingdoms suffered damage. Villages were evacuated. Entire armies fought daily just to contain spreading disasters.

Some defenders died without ever fully understanding what they had truly been fighting against.

Still, the research continued.

Then finally, inside the highest tower of Leonora, Velrion stopped writing.

The Archmage stared silently at the final glowing sequence spread across the pages before him while exhaustion weighed heavily across his face.

His study looked worse than ever now. Papers covered nearly every visible surface while several Magic instruments had burned out completely from overuse.

But despite the exhaustion, relief slowly appeared in his eyes.

He had done it.

Or at least... his part was complete.

Velrion leaned back slowly before exhaling a long breath that felt as though he had been holding it for weeks.

Then he raised one hand.

A faint pulse of Magic spread outward from the room before several spectral spirits materialized silently around him. Their bodies resembled translucent birds formed from pale blue light.

"Go," Velrion ordered quietly.

The spirits scattered instantly through the air and vanished beyond the tower windows.

Across the other kingdoms, the remaining Archmages received the message one after another. Each spirit carried Velrion’s completed calculations and results regarding the rewritten alignment of the Sky Anchor.

Inside in their distant studies and hidden chambers, the other Archmages reacted with visible relief after examining the information.

"So Velrion finally completed it."

"As expected of him."

"He truly solved the alignment structure faster than us. Hahaha."

Even among equals, Velrion’s intelligence regarding Magic had always been exceptional. And now his findings allowed the others to finalize their own sections of the research far faster than before.

After that, progress accelerated rapidly.

The remaining Archmages pushed themselves through the final stages of their work while the kingdoms continued enduring attack after attack outside their walls.

Eventually, after weeks of destruction, exhaustion, and constant battles against corruption and anomalies, all five Archmages finally completed their research.

And once they did, they gathered again within the same great hall as before.

The massive chamber remained silent as the five Archmages entered one after another beneath the dim glow of ancient lights. Compared to their previous meeting, every single one of them looked visibly more exhausted now.

Dark circles rested beneath their eyes. Their robes carried signs of neglect and overuse. Some even walked slower than before from sheer fatigue.

But despite that exhaustion, something else existed inside the hall now as well.

It was hope.

Because after weeks of impossible work and constant disasters, they had finally reached the point where preparation ended.

Now came the moment to decide whether their world could truly be saved.

For several moments none of the Archmages spoke. The weight of everything they had endured lingered heavily throughout the hall while glowing arrays slowly rotated above the ancient stone floor beneath them.

Then Velrion finally stepped forward and placed his completed notes onto the central table.

"We’ve all seen what happens if we fail," he said quietly. "The corruption is accelerating faster than we predicted."

Another Archmage nodded grimly before spreading several maps across the table.

"But the rewritten alignment is stable now," she replied. "At least in theory."

Silence followed again.

Because now came the truly dangerous part.

They need to connect with the Sky Anchor itself.

—