Inside the magnificent palace of the capital of the Atlantis Third Empire.
Queen Vivya had been standing on the terrace for several hours.
It was not until the afterglow of the setting sun stretched her shadow long and thin that she slowly turned around, her face still wearing a look of absolute confidence.
She believed that news of victory would soon arrive.
At that time, the entire continent would tremble before her.
She would establish immortal merit and find the Su she thought of day and night.
Everything would play out perfectly according to her script.
“Your Majesty, an urgent report from the front lines!”
A messenger rushed into the great hall,practically crawling and rolling on the floor.
His armor was crooked, and his face was filled with horror and despair.
His voice was hoarse and distorted from excessive running and fear.
Queen Vivya frowned slightly, displeased by the messenger’s loss of composure.
However, her inner joy prevented her from being too harsh.
Instead, she asked with a hint of anticipation:
“Oh? Is it news of victory? I knew the Empire’s warriors would not disappoint me! Speak, has the army already reached the gates of the Demon King’s Castle?”
The messenger collapsed to his knees with a thud, his entire body trembling violently.
He was almost unable to utter a coherent sentence:
“Ma… Majesty… we lost… we were… we were defeated again and again…”
“What did you say?”
The smile on Vivya’s face instantly froze, as if she had heard some absurd tall tale.
“Defeated? How is that possible! I sent the Empire’s most elite million-strong army! They were equipped with the finest weapons and the most powerful mages! How could a woman like Isayat possibly hold them back? What kind of nonsense are you talking about!”
Her voice rose abruptly, sharp with disbelief.
“It’s true! Your Majesty!”
The messenger broke into tears.
“We… we fell into an ambush… the area around the Demon King’s Castle… was full of traps… and those terrifying monsters… they were too strong… the generals… the generals have all been killed in battle… the million-strong army… the million-strong army… has been completely wiped out—!”
“Completely… completely wiped out…”
These words were like a bolt from the blue, striking Queen Vivya directly on the head.
In an instant, she felt as if she had been hit by lightning, and her mind went blank.
She staggered back a step, looking at the messenger in front of her with disbelief, as if she were looking at a madman.
“No… impossible… this is impossible! My elites… my Imperial Iron Cavalry… how could they…”
The deep blue crystal in her hand gave a sudden crimson flash at its core when she heard the words “completely wiped out,” before returning to its dim, deep blue state as if nothing had happened.
But Vivya was in such a state of mental chaos that she had no time to notice.
“It’s fake… it must be fake! You are lying to me!”
Vivya’s voice became shrill and frenzied.
She suddenly grabbed the crystal cup on the table and smashed it fiercely onto the ground.
The expensive crystal shattered into pieces instantly, reflecting her current state of mind.
“Drag him away! This bastard who spreads rumors and shakes the morale of the army! Drag him away and execute him!”
“Your Majesty! Every word I said is true! I beg Your Majesty to investigate! The front lines… the front lines have truly fallen!”
The messenger wailed piteously and was roughly dragged away by two guards who rushed in.
His cries echoed through the palace corridors and finally disappeared in the distance.
A deathly silence fell over the palace.
The ministers were as quiet as cicadas in winter, looking at each other in silence; no one dared to speak.
Queen Vivya’s face was deathly pale, and her body swayed slightly.
She could not accept this fact.
That was the army she had poured countless amounts of effort and expectation into, her reliance for conquering the Demon King’s Castle.
How could they… be completely wiped out?
Just then, another guard rushed in, crawling and stumbling.
His face was even paler than the previous messenger’s, and his voice carried sobs and extreme terror:
“Ma… Majesty! Something is wrong! Monsters! Countless monsters! They are pouring in from the border! They… they are attacking our country! The border defense line… was broken through in an instant!”
“What?!” Queen Vivya snapped her head up, her eyes filled with shock.
First, the million-strong army was wiped out, and now the monsters were counterattacking?
How was this possible! How did Isayat dare? How could she have such great power?!
“Monsters… where did the monsters come from? What about our border defenses?!”
Vivya roared hysterically, her sanity rapidly collapsing.
“I… I don’t know… they appeared as if out of thin air… there are too many of them… we simply can’t hold them back! The border guards… I’m afraid… I’m afraid they have already…”
The guard’s voice grew lower and lower, filled with despair.
First came the nightmare of the elite forces being annihilated, followed by the desperate situation of the monster army reaching the city gates.
Queen Vivya only felt a metallic sweetness surge up her throat.
Her vision went dark in waves, and there was a buzzing sound in her ears.
The Empire she was so proud of, the victory that was within her grasp, the Su she thought of day and night… everything collapsed in an instant!
The massive blow, combined with intense fear, anger, and despair, intertwined like an invisible hand squeezing her heart, making it impossible for her to breathe.
“Pfft—”
A mouth of fresh blood suddenly sprayed from Queen Vivya’s mouth, splashing onto the luxurious carpet like a blooming, bewitching flower of death.
She looked at her trembling hands in disbelief; they were stained with her own blood.
“Isayat… you… you…”
She wanted to say something, but she only felt the world spinning.
Everything before her eyes began to distort and blur.
The crimson thread within the deep blue crystal in her hand suddenly became clear, flashing once before vanishing, as if mocking her stupidity and failure.
“Your Majesty!”
“Queen Mother!”
The surrounding ministers let out cries of alarm, wanting to step forward to support her.
But it was too late.
Queen Vivya’s vision went black, and her body went limp as she fell backward, completely losing consciousness.
“Grief-stricken and overcome by rage,” these words precisely described her current state.
But behind this was the sudden downward spiral of the entire Empire’s fate.
“Quick! Summon the Royal Physician immediately!”
“Protect Her Majesty!”
The palace instantly fell into a state of chaos.
***
However, chaos could not stop the arrival of disaster.
The glory of the Atlantis Third Empire, from the moment Queen Vivya fell into a deep sleep, was already like a candle in the wind, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Without her unified command, which had guided the way like the stars, the massive war machine of the Empire instantly lost its core power.
The news of the elite army’s total annihilation at the front was like a heavy hammer, smashing the last of the morale and hope of the remaining resistance forces.
A huge shadow loomed over every inch of the land like a physical entity, making the already difficult situation even worse.
Under such desperate circumstances, the Empire’s defense system was as fragile as thin ice that would break at a single touch.
Just then, the long-premeditated monster army, like a black tide surging from a rift in the abyss, carrying an aura of total destruction, poured frantically across the Empire’s long border with an unstoppable force.
They were not scattered bandits, but an organized, hungry, and bloodthirsty beast of war.
The speed of their advance was breathtaking, like black lightning piercing the darkness before dawn.
In the blink of an eye, they were at the city gates.
The horror of their individual combat power and collective coordination far exceeded that of the Empire’s remaining garrison units, which were out of practice and poorly equipped.
Thus, scenes of the apocalypse played out across the Empire.
The once-prosperous cities were now turned into a sea of fire.
Flames licked the high towers, and thick smoke rolled, blotting out the sky.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of burning and the nauseating scent of blood.
Countless civilians lost their lives under the claws and fangs of the monsters.
Their wails and shrill screams, the crashing sounds of buildings collapsing, and the excited, hideous roars of the monsters intertwined, converging into a desperate and tragic symphony of the end.
The Empire’s soldiers, despite still carrying loyalty to the Queen and the determination to protect their homes, built a final line of defense with their own bodies amidst the ruins and streets, struggling to resist the frantic attack of the monsters.
Among them, there was no lack of heroic and fearless men who practiced their military oaths with their lives.
However, in the face of a monster army that had an absolute numerical advantage and individual strength that far exceeded that of human soldiers, their sacrifice seemed so insignificant, like pebbles thrown into a raging sea, swallowed instantly by the black waves.
One by one, the defense lines were broken through under the continuous impact of the monsters.
One by one, the towns were declared fallen after desperate resistance.
Wherever the monsters passed, life was extinguished, and the traces of civilization were ruthlessly erased by savage power.
Only three days had passed.
Counting from the moment Queen Vivya unfortunately fell into a coma, those short three days felt like a long and dark era for the entire Atlantis Third Empire.
Half of the once-mighty Atlantis Third Empire had already completely fallen under the iron heels of the monsters!
The fertile land that was once crisscrossed with paths and rich in products was now polluted by the filth and toxins left by the monsters, becoming barren and emitting an ominous aura.
Countless civilians lost their homes and became displaced.
Most of them either became food to fill the bellies of the monsters or could only drag their families along, fleeing in panic toward the areas of the Empire that had not yet fallen under the pursuit of monsters and the shadow of despair, their path forward uncertain.
The flags that once flew high throughout the Empire, symbolizing the supreme glory and brilliant history of the Atlantis Third Empire, had now fallen gloomily in many places.
They were charred by the fires of war or brutally trampled into the mud by the monsters.
In their place were monster totems carved with distorted symbols that emitted an evil aura and inspired awe and fear.
They stood triumphantly atop the blackened ruins and on the peaks of the bloody land, announcing the change of ownership and the arrival of a dark age.
The Atlantis Third Empire was experiencing its deepest crisis and suffering since its establishment.
The shadow of extinction weighed heavily on the heart of every survivor.
Deep within the palace, Royal Physicians were busy around the unconscious Queen Vivya.
Her breathing was weak, and her face was as pale as paper.
Even if she woke up, what she would face would be a mess with half the country lost, a shattered land, and a powerful enemy pressing down—a teetering Empire on the brink of destruction.
The deep blue crystal was currently lying quietly by her pillow.
Its light had become even dimmer, but the crimson at its core seemed to have come to life, pulsing faintly as if greedily absorbing the despair and aura of death from this land, waiting for the final harvest.
The end of the Atlantis Third Empire seemed to have arrived early.
And the perpetrator of all this, the high and mighty Queen Vivya, was completely unaware of it.
Or rather, she had personally lit the fuse for her own Empire’s destruction but was still immersed in the dream of victory she had woven for herself until she was brutally shattered by reality and fell into a desperate coma.
Over the capital, dark clouds began to gather.
An ominous storm was brewing.
The roars of the monsters could seemingly be heard faintly outside this last fortress that had not yet fallen, foretelling an even darker future.