The march through the corrupted world continued. The clouds above all five expedition routes suddenly churned like crazy while crimson dark lightning occasionally spread across it without producing any sound. That was very strange.

The entire region of the world seemed like it was trembling intermittently as though something under the land kept turning in restless sleep. Across every expedition route, chaos happened at the same time.

Far to the east from Erend’s location, another expedition group pushed through the remains of a ruined city that was now half-consumed by flesh-like corruption spreading across collapsed buildings and streets.

The expedition assigned to pass there had barely advanced through the district before the entire city suddenly awakened around them.

The walls moved. Massive veins pulsed beneath stone while distorted faces emerged from the buildings themselves.

Human-like bodies fused into the architecture began screaming endlessly as crimson growth spread through the streets like disease.

The knights froze in horror when hundreds of corpse-like creatures suddenly crawled out from inside the ruined structures.

Then Eccar descended from above like a falling mountain. The impact of his landing shattered the entire street instantly.

Stone exploded while enormous cracks spread across the city grounds. Several abominations were crushed immediately beneath the force alone before Eccar even moved again.

"Stay behind me!" Eccar roared while golden-brown Dragon Scales spread across his arms and neck.

The corrupted creatures charged at him from every direction after that. Some of them possessed multiple limbs while the others dragged giant masses of fused flesh and stones behind them.

One of the enormous creatures burst through an entire tower while releasing a deafening shriek that shook the streets.

Eccar grinned instead. Massive stone pillars erupted violently from beneath the city. Entire streets exploded as gigantic spikes impaled dozens of monsters simultaneously.

Several corrupted buildings collapsed after their foundations shattered from the force of Eccar’s Magic.

The expedition members watched with stunned and disbelief expression as the Dragonborn charged directly into the center of the horde with overwhelming brutality.

His punches felt catastrophic. The abominations exploded apart from his attacks while the ground cracked and collapsed wherever he moved. Giant chunks of shattered stone floated briefly around him before launching to every direction like meteors into the advancing creatures.

One corrupted giant nearly three stories tall attempted to crush him beneath massive distorted arms.

Eccar caught both limbs directly. Then he ripped the creature apart with raw force.

The expedition mages and knights could only stare speechlessly while the city around them continued collapsing beneath the battle.

—

Meanwhile far toward the northern route, Aesa accompanied another expedition traveling through a landscape completely consumed by black ice and endless snowstorms.

This region looked quieter than the others at first.

Too quiet even.

The expedition noticed it quickly because no sound existed there besides the wind.

Not even the storm sounded natural because the snow moved unnaturally slowly at times before suddenly accelerating again as if the environment itself could not stabilize themselves properly.

"This must be an anomaly," one of the mages said.

"Right. Thankfully, we have the Dragonborn with us. She is so pretty," a knight beside him said with low voice.

Then the frozen corpses beneath the snow suddenly awakened.

Thousands of humanoid shapes buried beneath the ice suddenly opened glowing crimson eyes simultaneously.

The ground exploded apart as endless undead bodies crawled up from below the frozen surface.

Several younger mages immediately panicked when they saw the sheer number.

But Aesa simply walked forward calmly.

The temperature dropped so violently afterward that even the expedition members felt pain spreading through their lungs. Frost instantly spread across the landscape while enormous ice formations erupted around her.

Then the storm itself seems to obeyed her. The entire blizzard changed direction instantly before spiraling violently around the Dragonborn.

Hundreds of ice spears formed within the air above the battlefield before raining downward like divine punishment.

The frozen undead shattered apart continuously. The entire waves of creatures disappeared beneath the blizzard while massive glaciers erupted from beneath the snowfields and crushed hundreds more.

Several giant skeletal beasts attempted to emerge from deeper beneath the ice but Aesa freeze them completely before they could even fully awaken.

Then she raised one hand quietly. The entire battlefield froze solid.

Thousands of corrupted corpses stopped moving instantly before the frozen wasteland shattered apart again in a colossal chain reaction stretching across the horizon.

The expedition members could only stand silently afterthat while pieces of frozen monsters drifted through the air around them like snow.

—

On the other routes within a region overtaken by distorted vegetation and floating spores, Sylven led another expedition through what had once been a vast forest kingdom. Unlike Erend or Eccar, Sylven moved with precision rather than overwhelming destruction.

The forest there was alive. Not metaphorically, but they were actually alive.

The trees twisted and writhed while giant eyes occasionally opened across their bark. Flesh-colored flowers bloomed and released spores that was capable of driving the minds of a few knigths insane. They were nearly collapsed after inhaling the spores.

Then the trees begin attacking. The entire forests bent toward the expedition and enormous roots erupted from the ground. Dozens of corrupted beasts also descended from the canopy simultaneously.

Sylven vanished. The expedition members only saw flashes.

Thin lines of greenish-gold light moved through the forest faster than their eyes could properly follow. One moment the beasts still existed but the next moment their bodies separated into pieces.

Sylven moved through the battlefield with impossible elegance. Every slash from his twin claws severed corrupted Magic directly alongside their flesh.

The living roots attempting to surround the expedition suddenly lost all movement before collapsing into dead gray matter. Even the spores within the air disintegrated wherever his aura passed.

One of the massive creature resembling a fusion between insect and tree descended toward the expedition from above.

Sylven appeared directly in front of it midair. With a single slash he cut the entire monster apart so cleanly that its separated halves remained suspended briefly before collapsing.

The expedition members barely managed to follow the battle at all because Sylven’s fighting style lacked the overwhelming explosions of the other Dragonborns he had heard.

Instead, everything simply died the moment he reached it.

—

At the last expedition route, the situation became even worse.

This region contained the largest concentration of corruption among all five routes. The sky here looked fractured while pieces of floating land drifted overhead.

That expedition nearly died within minutes after arrival.

Distortions kept opening randomly throughout the landscape while malformed creatures emerged continuously from inside them.

Some of them resembled animals while others looked completely alien and impossible to understand properly.

One glance alone caused several weaker soldiers to vomit from mental pressure.

That was when Erend’s clone intervened.

Unlike the real Erend, the clone fought more aggressively. Flames exploded across the landscape continuously while lightning storms spread through the distorted sky overhead.

The clone charged directly into the largest distortion zone.

Explosions erupted nonstop.

Firestorms consumed entire regions while red lightning tore through the battlefield in huge arcs. Several distorted creatures disintegrated instantly after direct contact with the Draconic flames.

One of the giant abomination attempted to emerge fully from a floating rift, but the clone fly directly through its body while surrounded by blazing lightning.

The resulting explosion shattered the giant’s body and the nearby floating terrain apart.

The expedition members could only shield their eyes repeatedly while trying to survive the collateral destruction. Even the distortions destabilized under the sheer violence of the Dragonborn’s attacks.

Across all five routes, the same realization slowly spread among every expedition member.

Without the Dragonborns accompanying them it seems like none of them would have survived this world for even an hour.

—