Thick black smoke blanketed the sky over Thornwick. The once-bustling streets now lay in deathly silence. Choking, acrid fumes filled the air, mixed with the metallic tang of blood and the putrid stench of decay.

At the mass burial ground in the southwest of the city, massive fires still raged. Flames crackled and hissed as they consumed what remained of human life. Charred bodies twisted in the heat while half-burned limbs occasionally tumbled from the pyre, exposing white bone.

Matthias stood on the hillside in his protective gear, staring down at the scene with complete indifference.

There wasn't a flicker of emotion on his sharply defined face. It was as if what burned below weren't thousands of human lives, but a field of dry grass. Dried blood stained his protective gear, gleaming dully in the sunlight.

"Your Highness, we found another 37 infected civilians in the western quarter. We've brought them all here," the assistant general reported, dropping to one knee. His voice s