"The Magic City... Jiles?"

Gazing at the spire that nearly pierced the clouds, and the thick, churning Magic Power surrounding it, Roland subconsciously tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

His companions reacted differently.

Mason’s face was pale, his legs trembling uncontrollably.

Beastman Freddy was breathing heavily, like a wild animal sensing a mortal threat.

Galvis and Teresa’s faces also showed the same grim solemnity.

Only Avril and Vanessa were different.

The Elf Maiden drew the Dagger from her waist. She flicked its sharp edge with a fingertip, one eyebrow slightly raised, her eyes filled with curiosity.

As for the purple-haired Vanessa...

Her lips were pursed, and the excitement in her eyes was practically overflowing.

"Everyone..."

Reggie reacted extremely quickly.

Witnessing the anomaly in the distance, he was about to instinctively order the army to assemble to prevent panic from spreading.

But before he could finish, a tremendous RUMBLE echoed from behind them, like a collapsing mountain range.

Everyone whipped their heads around to see the massive, cloud-piercing mountain behind them letting out a deafening groan.

The thick layers of rock and snow covering the mountain began to crack and peel away in large sheets, like decaying Scales.

Countless Giant Stones crashed down, kicking up a sky-blotting cloud of dust.

Amidst the heart-pounding disintegration, the mountain’s true nature was forcibly revealed.

Beneath the peeling rock, it wasn’t a mountain face that was exposed, but a city wall.

A wall of unimaginable size.

It was made of a dark gray, unknown material that was neither stone nor gold. Its surface was covered in ancient scars and ravines, as if torn by colossal claws or eroded by some terrifying power.

Its lines were hard and steep, possessing a cold, unnatural geometry that shot straight into the clouds, identical to the core buildings of the Magic City that had just burst from the earth.

Then, an even more terrifying scene unfolded.

As if it had lost all support, the middle section of the mountain range collapsed catastrophically, as if split open by an invisible Giant Axe.

"RUMBLE!"

The continuous mountain ridge fractured and collapsed amid the colossal noise.

Massive sections of rock poured inward and fell, sending plumes of dust soaring into the sky.

As the dust settled slightly, a vast, wide-open passage had been brutally carved through the mountain range that had once separated the Land of Mist from the outside world.

This passage was like a gaping wound on the earth, and it pointed directly toward the distant River Domain Kings’ Capitals.

It was no longer a barrier, but had become...

A straight shot into the heart of the River Domain nations.

In the midst of this cataclysmic chaos, the lift platform that had been hanging from the outer wall of the towering mountain was experiencing a terrifying ordeal.

It had already descended to a position near the rocky ledge at the foot of the mountain.

However, the violent sloughing of the mountain face triggered a chain reaction. The massive steel cables securing the platform were struck by flying Giant Stones.

The rock ledge supporting its base also fractured and collapsed in the tremors.

Having lost its main support, the platform tilted violently and plummeted like a puppet with its strings cut.

"CLANG!"

Amid the piercing sound of twisting metal and exploding rock, the heavy platform slammed onto the pile of rubble below, instantly buckling and deforming.

The Magic Energy Core let out a shrill screech as Sparks flew in all directions.

Fortunately, the fall was extremely short.

The platform had fallen from a low height onto a relatively soft slope of scree.

The impact completely wrecked it, the metal groaning as it bent, but it didn’t disintegrate or roll over.

As dust filled the air, the sounds of coughing, groaning, and cries for help from the still-shaken occupants drifted from the platform.

Numerous soldiers struggled to climb out of the gaps in the warped guardrails and from the hatches, their bodies covered in scrapes, bruises, and gushing wounds.

"Quick! Get the survivors!"

Reggie’s roar cut through the chaos, and he immediately ordered the unaffected soldiers in the camp to rush toward the wreckage.

The dust had not yet settled, mingling with the sounds of groans, cries for help, and the hissing of metal.

The rescue was underway, but Roland stood frozen in place, seized by a chill far more intense than before.

In the Perception granted by his [Material Synesthesia], the abnormality of his surroundings became starkly clear.

The Elements that had been flowing naturally through the air were now being greedily siphoned by some colossal entity, leaving only hollow trails where they had been violently dragged away.

"What the..."

Roland subconsciously tried to trace it to the source.

Just then...

"KLANG! SHREEE! GRIIIND!"

A grating noise, sluggish and ear-piercing like massive, rusted gears being forced to turn, tore through all the other sounds.

Roland whipped his head toward the sound, his heart tightening in his chest.

In the dust at the edge of the collapsed passage, the piles of fallen rock began to tremble violently before being thrust upward by an immense force from below.

In the blink of an eye, several massive figures rose from the rubble and dust.

They were like mobile siege towers, casting long Shadows that covered a vast area. The ground trembled where they stepped.

These behemoths had a vaguely humanoid silhouette but were constructed from the same unknown material as the city wall—a dark, near-black substance that glinted with a cold, metallic light.

Huge, angular plates were pieced together like crude Armor, with massive rivets faintly visible at the seams.

Their ball-and-socket or hinged joints were covered with heavy plating that scraped horribly as they moved.

The ends of their thick arms were either giant fists made of a single piece of metal or terrifying structures resembling Siege Hammers or massive claws. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Most unnerving of all were the gaps and plates on their torsos.

A dim light, a mix of ghostly blue and dark red, pulsed from deep within, like trapped lightning or Magma.

With each pulse of light, the torrent of Elements that had been forcibly gathered in the air was continuously siphoned into the Golems’ bodies.

Though shrouded in smoke, their silhouettes, radiating a metallic coldness and a strange, magical pulse, made the very air freeze.

"VMM!"

A crisp yet cold hum rang out, and two points of piercing red light suddenly flared to life where the creatures’ heads should be, deep within the dust clouds.

The red lights acted like precise probes, cutting through the dust to instantly lock onto the tiny figures of Roland and the others below.

In an instant, the atmosphere fell silent.

Seeing this, the injured soldiers’ pupils contracted, and they subconsciously choked back their groans of pain.

"Oh? Mr. Roland..."

Her clear voice, tinged with a hint of surprise, sounded particularly out of place at this critical moment.

"It seems what you said about the Magic City Jiles wasn’t just sleep-talking after all."

Her gaze swept over the colossal shadows, her eyes twinkling with pure curiosity.

"Primordial Golems of this scale... or rather, Magical Guide Structures... These are truly masterpieces of the Mages from before the Era of the End..."

"Magical Guide Structures?"

Avril’s eyes narrowed, her sharp gaze locking onto the pulsing blue and red light at the Golems’ joints.

"But this size... it seems vastly different from the descriptions in the ancient texts..."

Just then, the previously silent Magical Guide Structures suddenly emitted a faint but exceptionally grating sound.

The sound was like some kind of broken, distorted language. Its syllables and rhythm were completely incomprehensible to everyone present, only serving to create a sense of inexplicable agitation.

Only Roland was different.

The moment he sensed these behemoths might possess some form of intelligence, he instinctively activated his [Animal Companion] Trait.

As the Trait took effect, the noise that had been chaotic, disjointed, and unsettling to others was instantly translated and reorganized in his mind.

It became a cold, logical language, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Life signs... confirmed."

"Threat level... low-tier biological cluster."

"Analysis... unauthorized presence detected... awaiting execution command... purge and cleanse."