Chapter 81

The past three years.

A period when monster waves had struck the empire more frequently and more violently than at any point in its history.

Most of the empire's people, watching that devastation unfold, hadn't recognized that the monsters themselves had changed.

They'd simply trembled with a vague dread, assuming the heavens were angry and the beasts had gone mad.

But Cain, who had spent his whole life facing monsters, had noticed it at once.

That these were, without question, no ordinary creatures.

Eyes glinting red with madness. Physical strength that dwarfed anything seen before. Even the way they ran amok, unable to contain their own power.

An unmistakable wrongness clung to every one of them.

A sudden change like that always had a cause.

Cain had reported the matter to the Emperor at once and had been running a secret investigation ever since.

Ernst's mission had been an extension…