Not much later, several more similar creatures rose from the ground in quick succession — smaller than the first, yes, but still colossal compared to us re mortals.
They were Elder-ranked Solbraiths, one rank below Unholy.
Even from this distance, I could tell these ones had wings — massive leathery wings that they flapped once soared skyward, shrieking as they climbed higher.
And that's when the screams began.
"AAAAARGHHH!!"
"MY EYES! MY EYES!!"
"I'M BURNING! I'M BURGHH—!"
Panic gave way to agony.
I whipped my head around and saw people across the plaza suddenly… combust.
Their eyes were on fire. Literally.
White-hot steam hissed from their mouths and ears.
So scread until their throats split open.
Others didn't even get the chance — they just collapsed, twitching, before their bodies erupted in flas.
"What the fuck! What the fuck! What the FUCK!!"
"Eeeeeik! Wha—What's happening?!"
"Oh god…! OH MY GOD!"
Cadets around them reeled back in horror.
So tripped. So scrambled.
But it didn't matter.
Because it was spreading.
One by one, more Cadets dropped to their knees, clawing at their faces, their skin splitting like cracked porcelain.
Steam gushing from their mouths.
So vomited boiling blood onto the broken tiles.
Their screams turned wet and gurgling.
Then ca the fire.
They ignited, their whole bodies bursting into fla like paper soaked in oil.
A dozen. Then two dozen. Then more.
My eyes widened in horror.
I raised my voice and scread as loudly as I could, "Don't look up! Don't look at those creatures!"
But for many, it was already too late.
Looking at an Elder or Unholy Solbraith directly was enough to set the Essence inside your body ablaze.
And they weren't even attacking us.
They didn't need to.
Their re presence was lethal to us lowly creatures.
That…
That was the power of Elder Spirit Beasts.
Sowhere to my left, another wave of Cadets dropped like flies.
Their cries were drowned beneath the rising cacophony of terror.
'Of course,' I thought. 'Not everyone could've heard through the madness!'
Not everyone even had ti to process what was happening.
I gritted my teeth and scanned the plaza.
That's when I saw it — a small, crumbling spire nearby, still barely standing.
Without thinking, I rushed toward it and leapt to scale its half-broken side in a single bound.
I landed on a broad ledge. Once there, I inhaled sharply and poured Essence into my throat.
When I yelled again, my voice was amplified to the extent that it thundered through the plaza like I was speaking through a gaphone:
"DON'T LOOK AT THOSE CREATURES DIRECTLY! KEEP YOUR EYES DOWN! DO. NOT. PANIC!!"
This ti, I saw so of them freeze.
Cadets who'd been caught mid-sprint, mid-sob, or mid-prayer snapped out of it.
Then they looked away or covered their faces.
So turned and bolted for the exits.
Others rushed to find cover.
But many still didn't.
They scread as their insides caught fire.
So went limp without ever making a sound and collapsed like broken machines that had overheated and died.
My hands clenched into fists.
It was like watching a wildfire devour paper dolls.
Below , a few team leaders finally snapped to attention.
They began shouting orders. Organizing groups. Dragging the stunned and the screaming to safety.
It was already a ss.
And it was about to get worse.
—BOOOM!!
As if on cue, flashes of light and fire exploded near the western border.
I didn't dare look directly.
But I already knew.
Selene was engaging the Solbraiths.
—BOOOM! BOOOM!
—KWOOOM!
The sky trembled with each blast.
Then ca a different sound — a sharp crack that split the air like a whip.
I finally looked.
Not directly — only from the edge of my vision.
Through the smoke and swirling heat, I saw the largest Solbraith — that Unholy titan — open its mouth (if it could even be called that) and unleash a torrent of fire.
Now I don't know how many fire-breathing, sky-dwarfing monstrosities you've run into, but for , it was an apocalyptic sight.
Thankfully, before that swirling tide of fire could rain down and roast us alive, it slamd into an invisible barrier — the physical manifestation of Selene's Will that encompassed the entire Night Sanctuary.
But even that wasn't enough.
Not when the rest of the Elder Solbraiths rose higher into the sky… and joined in on the attack.
They opened their burning maws and rained streams of fla that could've even burned down the heavens.
Their combined assault didn't look like a battle.
It looked like a world-ending event.
A sky-shattering wave of golden-crimson fire ca rcilessly crashing down.
Selene's Will held.
For a minute.
For a long, excruciating minute…
Then it cracked.
Thin fissures spiderwebbed across the translucent do — each one glowing white-hot.
Then, with a sound like a church bell shattering underwater, the barrier imploded.
The shockwave hit like a hamr.
Dust, ash, and debris exploded outward.
I shielded my eyes and clenched my jaw.
By the ti the haze began to clear, Selene was already moving.
From where I was standing, she looked like a streak of argent light slashing across the smoke-blackened sky.
She darted between the Elder Solbraiths like a falling star trying to tear through a storm of fire.
But that was all I could see of that battle.
Because in the very next mont, the Unholy titan opened its crucible of a mouth… and scread.
No.
Actually, scread wasn't the right word here.
What it released wasn't sound.
It was horror.
A primal revelation.
An ancient wrongness made audible.
The dark clouds above us shuddered, recoiling like they too wished to flee. Violet lightning flared through the sky in frantic arcs.
That screech didn't just fill the air.
It infected it.
It was a noise made to shatter the foundation of the world. It was a guttural, blood-curdling, soul-wrapping screech that made the sky itself tremble.
Cadets who had managed to keep calm until now clutched their ears. Their faces twisted in pain.
So collapsed as their knees gave out and their bodies spasd.
Others convulsed. Their eyes rolled back as they choked on screams their throats couldn't form.
Even I…
Even I felt a chill stab between my ribs, cold as frozen iron.
My heart faltered. My hands trembled.
There have only been a handful of monts in my life when I genuinely felt terrified. That was one of those monts.
One of those rare monts when I was so frightened that I couldn't even think clearly.
Wrong — That was the only word my mind could find.
Everything in that mont felt so very wrong.
The air, the world, the sky, the earth — everything was just wrong.
Sothing so wrong it gnawed at the edges of the soul.
But unlike the others, I had no ti to fall to fear.
Because now, with Selene's barrier shattered…
There was nothing left shielding the Sanctuary from what was to co.
—SKRREEEEHHH!
And just as I feared, in the very next mont, the earth heaved.
The ground bubbled in several spots, then ruptured.
Bulging fissures cracked open all across the field.
And then as if summoned by their lord's cry, from those fissures ca the swarm of monsters.
Not dozens.
Not scores.
But hundreds.
Hundreds of twisted and abhorrent things crawled out of the ground like demons from the underworld.
Worms, longer than caravans, burst forth in coiling hunger — their onyx-scaled bodies glead like dark blades under moonlight. Their vertical maws split open in unnatural halves, full of layers upon layers of sharp teeth.
Behind them ca insects the size of horses — mantis-shaped creatures with scythe-like limbs and magma spewing out from their hollow eyes. Lava pulsed through the cracks in their chitinous hides like blood flowing through veins.
So were malford arachnids — with too many legs and not enough faces.
So slithered, others flew, a few simply crawled and scread.
And all of them — every last one of them — was a Solbraith.
Way weaker than the Elder and Unholy titans above, yes.
But still the sa species.
Because once a living creature was burned by a Solbraith's fla, it would rise again as one of them.
Stripped of na, stripped of all identity and mory — retaining only its Soul Rank and an endless hunger to burn everything.
"Damn it…" I muttered under my breath as my eyes swept the battlefield.
It had already descended into chaos.
Cadets were scattered, screaming, praying, running, bleeding.
So tried to fight, but got butchered before they could even swing their weapons.
One Solbraith marched forward, lting the cobblestone beneath its steps.
Another snatched a Cadet in its jaws. The poor boy barely had ti to scream. Then the creature vomited ashes.
Those smoldering ashes twitched.
Then rose.
The body of the Cadet who was eaten reford — not as a boy, but as a creature of jagged onyx scale and blazing hunger-filled eyes.
He wasn't human anymore.
He had beco one of them.
And he started attacking other Cadets.
A third Solbraith pounced and brought down an entire crumbling tower in a single lurch.
The whole scene was like a vision of hell.
Yes, that's what it looked like.
Hell made real.
Team leaders were doing what they could — dragging Cadets by their arms, shouldering the wounded, shouting desperate orders — but the monsters were faster.
Faster and smarter.
Too smart, even.
So were coordinating, flanking, surrounding, and cutting off escape routes.
That shouldn't have been possible.
Spirit Beasts didn't coordinate. Not the low-ranked ones, at least.
They were wild and primal and animalistically stupid.
But unfortunately for us, all Solbraiths were connected through a ntal link.
They could think as one.
Act as one.
In many ways, they coordinated better than even humans could.
And just like that…
The Massacre truly began.
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