The evacuation had already begun.
Sirens wailed across the city, echoing between the buildings as emergency broadcasts blared from every direction.
“Proceed to designated shelters immediately!
Do not panic!
Follow Hunter instructions!” But panic had already taken hold.
A pillar of crimson light burst from the Rift in the distant forest, staining the sky blood-red.
A physical wave of terror swept through the crowd.
The fragile order shattered.
For a second, the entire city froze beneath the crimson sky.
“W…
what is that?” “A Rift explosion!” “No…
that’s impossible!
This sector’s been safe for twenty years!” A woman covered her mouth, whispering a frantic prayer.
An old man simply stood there, staring up at the red clouds as if he had seen them many times before.
Someone turned and ran.
Within seconds, the massive crowd broke apart.
People shoved past one another, desperate to reach the evacuation routes.
Families were torn apart in the crush of bodies.
Children cried out as they were dragged away by the surge, while others stumbled and disappeared beneath trampling feet.
Hunters forced their way into the stampede, trying to carve safe paths through the chaos.
“Move!” “Stay together!” “Follow the route!” Their commands were completely drowned out by the roar of fear.
An elderly woman stumbled.
Then a man beside her.
Within moments, dozens were on the ground, swallowed by the stampede before anyone could reach them.
Kai stood frozen.
The screams around him faded into a dull, distant ringing in his ears.
Everywhere he looked, people wore the exact same expression.
Pure fear of death.
His heart lurched in his chest.
“Stop!” He grabbed a grown man by the shoulder, yanking him backward and pulling him away from a little boy pinned beneath the crush.
“Watch where you’re going!” The man didn’t even respond.
He tore his shoulder free and kept running.
Fear had stripped away everything else.
Kai’s gaze drifted toward the street leading home.
“Lucen…” His foot moved to run.
Then, a faint sob cut through the noise.
Five kids huddled beside a festival stall, still clutching the toy paper masks they had bought earlier.
They couldn’t have been older than eight.
One little girl clung to her brother, her voice shaking.
“W-where is mom…?” Kai closed his eyes.
Just for one agonizing second.
Then, he turned his back on the road home.
“It’s okay,” Kai said, dropping to one knee beside them.
“I’m here.” The children looked up at him, their tiny bodies trembling.
“Can you hold on tight for me?” They nodded.
Kai lifted the smallest girl onto his back, hoisted another onto each shoulder, and let the last two cling tightly to his arms.
“Good.” His voice softened.
“Don’t let go.” He stood up, gritted his teeth, and ran toward the nearest shelter.
*** RESCU HEADQUARTERS Warning lights pulsed blindingly across the command center as reports flooded in from every tactical station.
“Commander!” An operator shot to his feet.
“We have visual confirmation of the Riftborn!” Every holographic screen switched to the live feed from the Mutated Forest.
The chamber fell dead silent.
“…Mawbacks.” The horrific name spread quietly through the room.
Sophia’s eyes turned completely flat.
“Status.” “They’re not advancing.” The operator frowned in confusion at the screen.
“They’re just…
standing there.” Another feed appeared beside the first.
Hundreds of hulking Mawbacks filled the valley, their grotesque, eyeless heads fixed directly on the Hunter formation.
It looked less like a mindless monster army…
and more like soldiers waiting for permission to move.
Before anyone could speak, another operator stood abruptly.
“Commander!
Priority transmission from Aegis Recon Command!” Moscove turned.
“What they want?” “One contained Rift Object has breached containment.” “It escaped?” “Yes, sir.” “It’s moving toward Sector 135.” Moscove’s voice dropped to a dangerous octave.
“What classification?” The operator swallowed hard.
“Sovereign-class Interface Object.” For the very first time, Sophia looked away from the battlefield map.
She turned to Moscove, the color draining from her face.
“Commander…” Moscove’s icy eyes remained fixed on the tactical display.
“Where are the remaining Apex Sentinels?” Sophia didn’t even need to check the grid.
“Fire Monk is suppressing the Volcanic Rift in Sector Nine.
The Thunder Saint is escorting an evacuation convoy through the Eastern Corridor.
Echo is leading the Deep-Sea containment operation.” She finally looked up, meeting Moscove’s gaze.
“Even if they disengage immediately and move at maximum resonance…
they won’t reach Sector 135 until tomorrow morning.” A suffocating silence settled over the command center.
“So we’re on our own,” Moscove stated flatly.
His gaze returned to the battlefield.
“Then notify every Sentinel within deployment range.
No matter what they’re doing…
I want them moving toward Sector 135.” *** The flower shop basement lay in absolute ruins.
Shattered furniture and splintered wood lay scattered across the floor where the blast had explosively thrown everything aside.
The ARC operative remained motionless, buried beneath a collapsed wooden shelf.
A few feet away, Lucen lay perfectly still on the cracked concrete.
A faint, ethereal white glow pulsed beneath his pale skin, rising and fading with each shallow breath.
Between the boy and the unconscious operative lay the shattered Resonance Force-Sync Unit.
Its cracked digital display flickered weakly in the dark.
HOST…
COMPATIBILITY: “SOVEREIGN” SYNCHRONIZATION…
The screen glitched.
Once.
Twice.
Then the light vanished.
Its crimson glow died completely, leaving only faint wisps of smoke rising from its fractured metallic shell.
*** Kai pushed through the heavy steel doors of the underground shelter and gently lowered the last child to the ground.
“Stay with the staff,” he ordered softly.
The children nodded, quickly being ushered away by medics.
Only then did Kai turn back toward the surface.
He stepped back out into the plaza.
Hunters were aggressively guiding the last waves of civilians underground.
Kai scanned the rushing faces.
Then, his breath hitched.
Among the crowd…
he spotted Grandpa.
Raina was clinging tightly to his arm, both of them moving toward the shelter entrance.
A massive wave of relief washed over him.
They were safe.
Kai’s eyes swept across the rest of the plaza.
At the absolute center, standing high upon the memorial stage before the Pillar of Heroes, Alexander Voss hadn’t moved a single inch.
The Apex Sentinel’s eyes quietly followed the chaos unfolding below.
Families pushing through one another.
Hunters struggling to hold the evacuation lines together.
For a long moment, Voss simply watched.
Then, he stepped down from the stage.
A faint, invisible pulse spread outward from his massive body.
It wasn’t something that could be seen.
But every Hunter in the plaza felt it.
Kai gasped as the frantic, hammering rhythm of his own heartbeat suddenly began to settle.
The sheer, suffocating terror hanging in the air simply…
evaporated.
“Everyone, steady yourselves.
There is no need to panic,” Voss said calmly.
His voice wasn’t loud.
Yet, impossibly, every single Hunter and civilian heard it clearly in their minds.
Around Kai, Hunters straightened their backs almost instinctively.
Orders that had been swallowed by the screaming chaos became clear and authoritative once again.
The Hunters quickly resumed the evacuation, efficiently pushing the remaining civilians toward the shelters.
“Move to the shelters!” “Stay together!
Don’t push!” The crowd began moving in orderly lines.
Through it all, Voss’s sharp gaze remained fixed on the distant, blood-red sky above the forest.
*** THE MUTATED FOREST Not a single Hunter moved.
The valley had fallen unnaturally, terrifyingly still.
Hundreds of Mawbacks stood just beyond the defensive line, their massive, chitin-plated bodies rising and falling with slow, steady breaths.
Field Commander Lucy’s fingers tightened around the shaft of her energy spear.
Beside her, Kellan never took his eyes off the towering creatures.
“Did you noticed?” Lucy gave a faint, grim nod.
“They’re searching.” The Mawbacks slowly turned their eyeless heads, as though sweeping an invisible radar across the valley.
One after another.
Methodically.
Studying every single Hunter in the formation.
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Kellan’s scarred temple.
“They’re not looking at us.” Suddenly, every Mawback lowered its body, their massive leg muscles coiling tight.
Lucy’s heart skipped a beat.
They weren’t charging.
They were preparing to leap.
Her eyes shot upward to the sky.
Hundreds.
If creatures that massive landed directly inside the formation…
The shield wall would survive, but the Hunters standing behind it would be crushed into paste.
Without a second of hesitation, Lucy roared at the top of her lungs.
“Skybreaker Formation!” “Shields!
Forty-five degrees!” For the briefest fraction of a second, the front line hesitated.
But the veterans moved instantly.
“Move!” “Raise them!” “Lock the canopy!” Heavy tower shields lifted from the ground, their lower edges digging fiercely into the earth as their upper rims tilted sharply toward the sky.
One after another, the barriers overlapped and locked.
A sloped wall of solid steel and violet Resonance stretched across the valley like a ramp.
Kellan’s eyes widened in realization.
“She saw it.” The veteran beside him let out a short, gritty laugh.
“Not bad, Commander.” Then, the sky vanished.
Hundreds of colossal Mawbacks came crashing down from the heavens.
The first impacts slammed against the angled shields instead of the Hunters beneath them.
BOOM!
The entire formation shook, the ground buckling under their boots.
Some Mawbacks slid uselessly across the angled barriers before crashing heavily into the dirt.
Others collided with one another in midair, tumbling chaotically away from the defensive line.
But not all of them.
One massive body slipped through a narrow gap between two shields.
It landed directly behind the shield line.
The Mawback crashed into the center of the formation.
CRUNCH!
Its sheer weight instantly crushed the Hunters caught beneath it, sending a spray of warm blood across the faces of those standing nearby.
The battle cries died instantly.
A rookie stood completely frozen.
Warm blood dripped slowly down his pale face.
His weapon slipped from his trembling hands, clattering against the dirt.
His legs simply refused to move.
The Mawback slowly raised one massive, scythe-like claw, aiming directly for the boy.
Time seemed to stop.
“Kid!” A veteran threw himself forward.
His Resonance blade flashed once, a brilliant streak of violet light in the dust.
The Mawback split cleanly in two before the claw could fall.
Its severed halves crashed heavily to the ground on either side of the paralyzed rookie.
The veteran grabbed the front of the boy’s chest armor and yanked him violently backward into the formation.
“What are you standing there for?!” The rookie stared at him, his entire body shaking.
“I…
I couldn’t…” The veteran shoved the dropped weapon back into the boy’s hands.
“Kid…
look at me.” His eyes were wild but focused.
“If you freeze again…
you will die.” He glanced back toward the endless tide of monsters recovering from their fall.
Without another word, he turned and charged the next Mawback.
The screams echoed a heartbeat later.
“BREACH!” Lucy’s spear was already moving, carving an arc of lethal energy through the air.
But then, a massive shadow swept across the battlefield.
Lucy slowly raised her head, looking past the fighting.
The sky was falling.