[Eliminate all enemies and drive out the heretics. Time remaining: 7 hours 59 minutes.]0

“Charge!"0

I dashed across the blood-red plains. Even though the oppressive air pressed in on me, I refused to slow down. 0

Our strategy was simple. I would hold back the warlord while the climbers faced the heretics. From what I had glimpsed during the illusions that trapped me in this realm, I was confident the warlord grew stronger with each death. 0

We had to end this swiftly.0

The ground beneath me suddenly shuddered, a tremor surging from deep below. The vibration felt disturbingly familiar, much like the shaking that accompanied a greatworm from the Dumie Desert. 0

Have they been lurking here all along?0

In that instant, the monstrous beasts burst forth from the ground without restraint. Among the horde were greatworms, scorpions, crimson creatures, and even more beasts I hadn’t seen in the desert.0

This is bad.0

Though these monsters weren’t overwhelmingly strong, the climbers had never faced them before. That didn’t even factor in their grotesque forms, which were unsettling, to say the least. I grew worried that the enemy’s unexpected reinforcements would sap the climbers’ morale.0

I need...0