With his body lying on the ground, Nikolai’s eyes suddenly snapped open, leading him to instantly grunt loudly because of the blinding sun he was under.

He sat up, eyes still numbed by the sun. He saw in front of him a faint silhouette, whose outline indicated that it belonged to a woman.

"So, you’re finally awake, huh?" A voice he was mildly familiar with called.

"... Ilya?"

"Yes, it’s me. At least, you still recognize me. You don’t look like you have sustained any long-term strain injuries. " She said in a rather disinterested voice.

Nikolai was still lost as to what she was saying, but as his vision got clearer, he started to notice that something was amiss.

Glancing at his arms, he saw what exactly was amiss. Both of his arms, from the nails to the elbows, were gone, leaving behind a charcoal-like stump.

Nikolai's heart skipped at the sudden gory sight.

But then, as his eyes swept through the surroundings, he felt like his brain had disconnected from him for several minutes.

Not being able to believe what he saw, he stood up to get a better view of the surroundings, but without arms, even that felt tedious.

Are you okay?"

No, I’m not, Nikolai protested internally.

Around him was something that he could only describe as an apocalyptic sight, while lingering around him was a foul stench that urged Nikolai to almost throw up.

"What happened here?"

"What? You don’t remember! "

He was about to wave his head negatively, but then memories of what happened streamed back to his brain.

"... A dragon." He murmurs.

"Exactly, a dragon breached the barrier and this…" With her hand wide spread open, "is what is left of its passage."

With yet another scan over the surrounding Nikolai, he saw something that gave him the impression that hell itself had been brought upon these lands. In fact, hell probably wouldn’t feel this hellish in comparison.

Chaos completely littered the place over dozens of kilometers of radius.

Under the clear and blue sky, everything within sight was in ruin, on fire, roasted beyond salvation, and that included structures, edifices, and even human corpses.

This was everything that was left of what used to be a glorious city built around the eastern fortress. The last stronghold standing before the monster continent's eastern flank.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Nikolai suddenly remembered details of what led to this hell that made him shiver.

"My son! Where is my son!"

He finally remembered that before the hell rained upon this city, he stood proud next to him.

Looking around, he was about to search for him, but was suddenly stopped by his fellow Holy Paladin, Ilya Ezekiel.

With a hand on Nikolai’s shoulder, Ilya said, "You were all alone when I dug out of all this rumble. If he was with you when it happened, then he’s most likely dead. Nobody would’ve survived. The fact that you survived is a miracle in itself. "

"I must find my son. He’s …"

"Dead, look around. If he was alive, I would’ve found him. I can understand that this is a harsh truth that without proper proof you wouldn’t want to believe, but do you really want to see your son in the state he’s most likely in."

Nickolai's heart ached just thinking about these words.

As a Holy Paladin of the Church, his son was his right arm, and both he and his son ruled over the eastern area, the fortress, and the city that, over the years, had been built around it.

He was present at the moment, when they fought the dragon that breached the barrier, Nikolai knew that the moment that the dragon so casually breached the barrier, what he should’ve done was to retreat, but he, as a sword of humanity, couldn’t allow the creature to venture any further on the human continent.

His son wholeheartedly agreed, as he stood proudly facing the immense dragon, only to be reduced to atoms by a single breath of it.

It took an instant to lose everything.

His son, his second, was his army.

Nothing left but ashes.

Now that this shard of memories had returned to him, Nikolai painfully remembered, almost so realistically, that he felt like reliving that moment every single instant.

Defeated, Nikolai asked, "Where is "it" now?"

"From what I’ve last heard, it was heading south toward Timbencourt, but if their destination is beyond that place, then by now it should’ve reached the Beaumont Duchy."

"So all of this was for nothing." Nikolai told himself internally.

"Wait, what do you mean by their?!"

The information took time to reach you, but this place wasn’t the only one breached by dragons. By now, four breaches on the barrier were reported, each made by dragons, which seemed to be heading for somewhere in the south, destroying everything in their path.

Hearing this, Nikolai couldn’t help but laugh maniacally about what he felt. He was ashamed but also amused by what he felt, relief. The idea thatwasn’t the only one to have gone through this somehow consolated his heart.

After some time, Ilya, who seemed to have somehow understood what he felt, asked, "You’re done, now?"

Nikolai, who was effectively done, said, with a somewhat disgusted mug on his face. "Yes. So how will we, the "armed hand" of humanity, react to this? What will we do?"

"For now, most of the deeds are done. They have already traveled through the entirety of the human continent. Most of these monstrosities seem to be after a single objective or destination. We must face reality. We can’t beat them, nobody can, except of course, his grace, the Pontifex. Given his current condition, all we should do right now is to wait."

"The Pontifex, huh?"

Nikolai was personally chosen by the Pontifex himself to be a Holy Paladin. He knew how wise and powerful the man was. Nikolai had diligently served the Pontifex for more than forty years, as had each of his fellow fourteen, but today, after having gone against a creature of such unparalleled strength, he felt his heart filled with doubt as to how omniscient and almighty the Pontiff truly is.

"What?" Ilya asked.

"Nothing."

Primordial Lightning Elemental Dragon Ezra, The Storm Harbinger

Apathy.