Screams echoed down the streets of New Seoul. What had been a peaceful morning turned into a living nightmare within minutes.
The rift in the sky widened like a tear through reality, its light casting long, flickering shadows across the skyline. Hovercars stalled mid-air and fell crashing into the sides of buildings. Digital billboards exploded into static, their AI voices replaced with emergency sirens and distorted warnings.
"ALL CITIZENS—EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT—"
Zayen stumbled backward as one of the dark figures from the sky descended right in front of a department store. It hovered for a second, then touched down, its black cloak billowing despite the still air.
Its face was hidden beneath an obsidian mask, but its glowing crimson eyes scanned the crowd like a predator.
Then, it moved.
With terrifying speed, it dashed forward and slammed a pulse of black energy into a security drone, vaporizing it on impact. Panic exploded around it. People screamed, ran, shoved each other in a frenzy.
Zayen ducked behind a bench, heart pounding in his ears.
"This... this isn't just tech malfunction. They're not human."
Across the street, another figure descended, this one wielding a staff that cracked the pavement as it landed. Flames erupted from the impact, swallowing a parked vehicle whole.
"GET OUT OF THE STREETS!" someone yelled.
But the chaos was only beginning. More rifts opened—smaller ones, like veins branching from the main tear in the sky. Each one became a portal for something worse: monsters of twisted bone, shadow beasts with insect-like limbs, and armored warriors with weapons that shimmered between solid and spirit.
Military drones were deployed within minutes, but their bullets passed through some of the creatures like smoke. Others retaliated with brutal precision, tearing through resistance like paper.
Zayen couldn't look away. His instincts screamed at him to run, but something held him there—some invisible string tying him to this moment.
Then he saw Rhea.
She had been helping a customer outside the bookstore, and now she was pinned behind a half-crushed hoverbike. A beast with a gaping jaw crawled toward her on all fours, steam hissing from its back like a broken pipe.
Zayen's blood turned cold.
"No... not her."
Without thinking, he pushed through the crowd. His body moved on instinct, his fear replaced with something else—desperation.
He had nothing. No weapon. No training. Just the will to stop something he couldn't even understand.
And as he ran toward her, toward the chaos—
The rift pulsed.
And she noticed.
Far beyond the veil of smoke and sky, in the heart of the underworld, Queen Ashtara's eyes snapped open.
Her chosen one had moved.
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