Ateia landed on the surface of the continent…and found an army awaiting her. The boundaries of the world were collapsing, and not all the holes led to an empty void. Countless Rifts covered the surface of the continent, pouring out equally countless monsters. Inferno, Endless Night, Deluge, Overgrowth, Verminflood, Swarm, Tempest, and many other Realms dumped their mana and inhabitants out into the world. Even less destructive Realms like Fire, Water, Light, and Dark could produce monsters, which also rushed out of the portals to their homes and joined the hordes. Big mana cores similar to dungeons rose among the horde, binding the monsters as they exited the Rifts and preventing them from tearing each other apart.

Ateia narrowed her eyes.

“Out of my way!”

Holy mana surged around her, and the Herald of the New Dawn no longer had access to Colleöne’s system and so could no longer empower the monsters. The weaker monsters perished outright, the stronger ones were weakened and disheartened. Ateia then drew her bow and let loose. Half a dozen beams of light shot across the field, vaporizing every monster in their path.

And Ateia had an army of her own, each growing stronger as Holy mana from Ateia filled them with hope and power.

Taog ran ahead of her, his Dark Shroud growing rapidly with the black void above. A wolf of Dark mana formed around him, trampling and snapping at all monsters before him. 00B rushed at his side, a shield of Holy mana forming to his sides to protect the others behind him, while his cannon lobbed Holy-infused high explosive shells and armor-piercing penetrators into the enemy. 00B-Beta helped aim his weapon systems and formed up the humanoid drone-golems following him. An army of mechanical warriors marched across the field, firing machine guns, missiles, lasers, spells, and any other weapons Melion thought to fill them with. The other cyborg-monsters led the drones as they rushed into battle.

And that wasn’t all.

R and Lilussees used their dungeon cores to form large portals to the Primary Home Base, from which came the reinforcements. Snuan piloted the lead dungeon airship as Seero’s entire fleet flew above the black continent, with spells and enchanted railguns laying down heavy covering fire as flying drones launched missile after missile. Melion and the metal slimes arrived, each occupying an armored suit. Melion even had a dungeon core powering their own, with a massive railgun on its shoulder. The metal slimes fabricated specialized and enchanted ammunition right on the spot to feed into their railguns, firing the ideal shot to take down each target in their sight.

And then…the king arrived. The Great-High King took the field in all his glory…aka being dragged by 02S as she arranged his forces.

“No! You cruel, stupid, wretched spider-thing! If the Wise-Mighty-Gracious-Ultimate Boss-Empress isn’t here, we will die-perish, yes yes!”

S's eyes narrowed.

"Then we will make them die-perish too."

Other dungeon masters arrived as well. The dungeon master of the Imperial family’s dungeon, Fabian and Lavinia from the Haunted Mausoleum, the dungeon master of the Tower of Heroes…all those who surrendered to Seero. The dungeons and their masters were originally created by the Aesdes to prevent Rifts such as the one in the sky…and those still connected to Ateia by Holy mana now remembered their purpose. They each arrived with all the monster armies they possessed…including an unusually high proportion of slimes.

And then, Uscfrea arrived, an axe in one hand and a minigun in the other. His face was grim as he let out a sigh.

“...and here I thought it was just the Empire that was going to fall. I didn’t expect the world itself to collapse.”

At his side, Miallói shrugged.

“Only if we fail.”

On his other side, Legate Augustalis narrowed her eyes.

“We won’t.”

Estrith then landed in front of him, her eyes wide.

“Steward…you are here?”

Uscfrea nodded.

“We all are. The Dobhar, the Wulver, the Imperials, the Selkies…Turannia shall save its Queen together, or avenge her if we cannot.”Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As he spoke, ranks upon ranks of soldiers marched out from the portal. The Dobhar, the former rebels, the Wulver clans that had joined them, now armed with enchanted weaponry forged by the Dwarves of Khalbudor and as much modern equipment as Uscfrea could summon and Melion could provide.

The Selkies marched alongside them. And then came Governor Aemilia, now in the enchanted armor of a battlemage, and Magister Tiberius with as many pockets and potions would fit on his armor. Following them came all the legions of Turannia. In this instance, Ateia had granted permission to the CELIU network to transport allied forces through Seero’s dungeon network.

And so the Turannians did not arrive alone.

Emperor Lucius arrived in golden armor, mounted atop a griffin. On his flanks were the pegasus mounted Sky Knights of the North, and the Imperial airships. Below him marched all the legions of the North, led by Magister Militum Canus. Princess Caecilla walked alongside them, along with all the mages of the Imperial Academy and the Necrotorum both. Behind them the Architecti pushed mighty siege engines, while the limitanei helped them carry massive stores of ammunition. The knight orders arrived in their armor and atop monstrous mounts of every sort. The auxiliaries and allies of the Empire covered the flanks. Mélusine lancers, dwarven clan warriors, Diminidum Pendum assassins, Centaur horse archers, and many others.

They were joined by Emperor Julius and Maior Generalis Maximia, leading all the legions the Eastern Empire could bring to bear. Landships rumbled across the field as the most veteran army in the Empire assembled itself for war. Maior Generalis Maximia grinned as she glanced back at the portal.

“So you were holding out on me, huh, Queen of the Dobhar? I want to talk about getting some of these portals later.”

The Sky Legion then flew through the air with all the remaining airships of the South. Half-elven warriors, equally skilled with blade, bow, and magic marched from Mirima as every mercenary band the Southern Realms could hire marched alongside them, while the mages, scholars, and researchers of Mirima brought every invention of war they had concocted. Captain Falrauth pursed his lips as he looked out on the monster infested continent ahead of him.

“We…were really stupid, weren’t we? Well, nothing for it but to atone for our mistakes, I suppose.”

Soon, the battle was joined. The full might of the Empire had assembled as one, for the first time in centuries. Enchanted ballistae, huge trebuchets, and giant magic cores opened fire with bolt and boulder and spell. Arrows and crossbow bolts covered the sky in black clouds lit by countless spells. Massive magic circles covered the field as the Imperial mages Ritual casted strategic spells. Landships and mounted cavalry charged the enemy lines alongside railgun tanks, trampling the monsters underfoot. The shields of thousands of Bulwarks linked together as anti-Archon barriers formed above, holding back the monstrous hordes. The blades and halberds and pikes of countless Slayers cut down the monsters in the thousands. Disciplined men and women of every size, shape, and species of the Empire stood as one, as leaders like Magister Canus cast army-wide buffs upon them.

Uscfrea and Estrith fought as one at the head of a Dobhar army, laying down gun and artillery fire support for the Imperial forces. The tough Dobhar led the way as Wulver, Selkies, and former Imperial rebels dealt out the damage, while a tide of friendly dungeon monsters (mostly slimes) countered the enemy's charges.

Airships, knights mounted on flyers, and the Sky Legion's soldiers joined with Seero's drones to fight the flying monsters for control of the air, as the ships of Mirima joined with the railgun and dungeon airships to bombard the hordes below.

And each of them glowed with golden and silver light as Ateia blessed every person on the field. When Ateia reached one of the pseudo-dungeon cores binding the monsters from the Rifts…she flooded it with Holy mana, taking control of it as Seero once did. She then used it to channel Holy mana into the nearest Rifts, allowing the Holy mana of the world to begin repairing some of the holes. The Rifts around it slowly began to close.

Between the modern and magical firepower of Seero’s forces, the endless tide of slimes of the dungeons, and the disciplined formations of the Empire, Ateia and the others began to push forward even against the endless monsters of the Realms of Mana.

And as time passed…they were not alone.

The Imperial legions braced themselves as a massive flood of fur and chitin rushed towards them. Two Verminflood and Swarm Rifts happened to appear close to one another, forming a truly massive horde of overwhelming numbers.

But then, the sun lit up the sky. Several of them.

The Council of Archons landed in front of the legion as their Sunfall spells brought ruin upon the horde. High-Archon Kurzal scoffed.

“So that Vommik was more of an idiot than we thought, and tried to doom us all. And now it falls on us to purge his mistakes. How typical.”

One of the other High-Archons giggled.

“So says the one who made Vommik’s schemes possible.”

High-Archon Kurzal scowled, but instead turned his wrath upon the monsters ahead. More Archons and Sun Elf Spellblades and their servants began to arrive, any who were capable of flight. The Legion now found themselves on the right side of Archon magic. Likewise…Thunder Harpies, Pegasus Centaurs, dragonkin, and any other tribes who could make it arrived and joined the fight for the air.

Ateia’s call had not been limited to the Empire. The Holy mana took her words across the world, and the powers of the Aesdes let them be understood by all inhabitants of Aelea. Each of them now understood the threat assaulting their home, and answered the Aesdes’s call.

It even went beyond that. Soon, wyverns and pegasus and griffins and giant eagles began to arrive, and tore into the monsters all their own. Every magical species, every animal that called Aelea its home. The world itself was under threat, and so it rallied all that it had to the call of its last steward.

With countless reinforcements arriving and an Aesdes wielding the Holy mana of the entire world, the army continued to push into the black continent and close the Rifts, making their way towards the center. And yet…the Rifts continued to appear, and the hole in the sky continued to grow…