Five banners rose — blood-red, ivory, silver, black, and green-gold — each a death sentence for Goblin's Hollow.
The coalition had arrived.
Four hundred soldiers. Twenty Heroes. Five Lords.
And they brought not mercy, but fire.
Fang scouts were the first to fall.
Two were caught trying to sabotage enemy supply lines. They were dragged out in front of the army, and Lady Marseth personally oversaw their deaths — their bodies melted from the inside, skin sloughing off in steaming layers of agony.
Her message was clear: no prisoners.
But so was Reed's.
From the western ridge, the goblins released the first volley.
Arrows tipped with bone-poison. Flaming javelins wrapped in Umberglass vine. Screams lit the air.
The war had begun.
Reed stood in the central tower, watching as the first wave pushed through the southern route.
They triggered everything.
Spike pits hidden beneath fake soil.
Glyph mines that detonated in flesh-consuming fire.
Collapsing bridges over canyons soaked in blood oil.
One hero tried to leap across a trench — only to be grabbed mid-air by a Hollowspawn's tongue and torn in half.
The rest fled.
Shia whispered beside him, "They expected a goblin hole."
Reed grinned. "They got a kingdom of teeth."
In the east, Marseth's Reclaimed — undead stitched with glyphs — pushed through fogged marshes.
They made it fifty meters before going mad.
Bog witches from Maul's ranks released mindspores into the mist. The undead began tearing at their own flesh, screaming with mouths that no longer needed to breathe.
A pyromancer tried to burn it away.
His skin turned into mushroom bark mid-casting.
And the swamp swallowed him whole.
At the western flank, Hadren charged forward on his white stag, cutting through decoy goblin lines. His Sylvan Knight carved through goblins like harvest.
And then...
Reed stepped into the clearing.
Unarmored.
Alone.
Unbroken.
"Thorne!" he roared. "You think yourself noble?"
Hadren raised his blade.
"You think yourself a king?" Reed's claws grew, his veins burned, his eyes lit with rot-fire. "Let me show you how a tyrant dies."
Reed charged.
The Sylvan Knight intercepted, shield raised.
Reed shattered it in one strike — Bonecraft infused with Devourer's Mark.
They traded blows like gods.
Reed bled.
So did the Knight.
And behind them, goblins clashed with Hadren's soldiers in a frenzy of fangs, clubs, and fire.
From the treetops, Shia dropped.
A blur of motion. Shadow made flesh.
She blinked into the middle of a coalition line.
Six seconds later, thirteen men were dead, their bodies opened like fruit.
[Skill Activated: Phase Reaver]
The blade passed through plate like smoke.
Their screams were the only warning.
She vanished again.
When she reappeared behind Lord Vesrick's flank, she whispered:
"Your throat."
And cut it.
Helcran unleashed his Hero — a glass-armored giant wielding a hammer inscribed with celestial glyphs.
Kheldrin summoned angel-fire to purge the Hollowspawn from the north.
Maul's witches combusted one by one trying to stop the advance.
The enemy surged forward — hundreds strong, reinforcements crashing in.
Reed screamed for the Alpha Protocol.
[Alpha Protocol Engaged]
Hollowspawn: Unbound
Hunger Threshold: Removed
The trenches erupted.
From beneath, twisted giants of bone and rot clawed their way out — dozens of them, roaring like animals caught in a god's nightmare.
One grabbed a knight and bit him in half.
Another impaled three soldiers on its spines and ran screaming into the east, dragging them behind like dolls.
The Hollow itself had become alive.
At the center of the domain, the War Altar cracked.
Veins from the Black Root pulsed upward.
The System began to glitch.
[Domain Status: CORRUPTED ASCENT]
Alignment: CHAOTIC // NULL
System Stability: 32%
Emergency State Triggered
The altar bled.
And from it came something else.
Shia reached the altar just as Kheldrin's holy knight descended.
He radiated gold. Wings of fire. Blade of judgment.
She blinked.
She missed.
He slashed.
And her chest split open.
Reed screamed.
Time slowed.
[Soul Anchor Triggered]
Reed has 30 seconds to live.
Shia gains +200% damage for final strike.
She stood.
Bleeding. Burning.
And whispered:
"Then we both die like gods."