Aboard his cloaked ship, Xy'tharr Kench stood rigid before the holographic display, while his four compound eyes tracked the dimensional breach forming beneath the valley. Readings scrolled past in cascading lines of data, detailing mana saturation levels, spatial integrity metrics, and energy signature analysis.
These projections screamed the same conclusion.
Xy'tharr Kench's mandibles clicked once in alarm. His secondary arms moved with uncharacteristic speed across the interface.
He spoke on the primary command channel, declaring,
"Contingency Seven," he said on the primary command channel. "I repeat, Contingency Seven has been triggered."
As a result, the bridge crew froze, and a Kytinn officer faced him. Contingency Seven was not a drill. Every Kytinn officer turned toward him. It was a designation reserved for representing a planetary extinction threat that was triggered by a single monster.
"The culling operation has resulted in a failure."
"Is this a spontaneous dimensional breach?"
"We need to investigate the issue. Unfortunately, the site had been destroyed by the rift."
The holographic display updated. The alarms pulsed angrily crimson. Energy readings spiked beyond what their sensors were designed to measure.
"Are the raid members still alive?" Lyra'xis Sola asked.
"They are for now," Xy'tharr said, but he paused. "The problem is that the creature registers at Level 763. Species identification: World-Carver Behemoth."
Silence filled the communication channels for three full seconds.
Then chaos erupted. Orders flooded. Fleet commanders demanded clarification. Strategic coordinators requested tactical assessments. Legate Lyra'xis Sola's voice cut through the noise, sharp and commanding.
"Xy'tharr. Confirm the threat classification."
"Confirmed, Legate. The breach is stabilizing. The entity is fully crossing."
"The native Reidar Miller, is at ground zero. Survivor concentration is approximately two hundred individuals within the immediate threat radius."
"Evacuation protocols?" the Legate asked.
"Insufficient time," Xy'tharr said, his primary arms moving across the controls. "The entity's emergence is speeding up. I recommend direct intervention and deployment of Phalanx combat teams."
He paused.
"I ask for permission to engage."
…
…
…
Portals tore open across the valley sky. Not just the one from which the monster was emerging, but many more.
The portals tore open across the valley sky like ragged wounds in reality, bleeding violet light and crackling energy. One materialized above the Mire, while another split the air over the smoldering remains of the Crimson Briar Patch. A third opened directly above the battlefield where the raid had just killed the Mire-Crawlers. The raid members could do nothing but stand frozen.
Shapes descended from each portal. Winged creatures poured through first, serpentine forms with scales that reflected no light, which possessed vast, membranous wings. They shrieked as they dove toward the earth.
Larger things followed them. Quadrupedal beasts the size of houses dropped through the rifts, their bodies armored in bone plates. They hit the ground with impacts that shook the valley floor.
The portals widened. More creatures emerged — things with too many limbs, things that defied description, which shouldn't exist in this world. The System notification blazed across every survivor's vision.
—[PLANETARY THREAT DETECTED: World-Carver Behemoth—Level 763] —
—[WARNING: EXTINCTION-LEVEL EVENT IN PROGRESS]—
The sky erupted with light.
Massive ships materialized above the valley, their hulls shimmering as cloaking fields disengaged. Dozens of vessels, each one larger than any building Reidar had ever seen, filled the air with their presence.
Hatches opened. Warriors poured out.
Kytinn soldiers descended with flying skills, wielding weapons of different kinds.
<They came to stop the monster.> There was no alternative. That wasn't a creature that the survivors could kill at their current level.
Alongside the Kytinn warriors came the Thalassari. Thousands of them. It was an army that dwarfed anything Reidar had imagined, not because of the numbers, but because of the levels, as they were all around level 300.
The Aegis Phalanx had arrived.
Some winged serpent monsters were the first to die as the Kytinn warriors intercepted them mid-flight, mana blades shearing through scales and bone.
The creatures didn't stand a chance. They were at Level 200, maybe 250 at most, formidable by Earth's standards, and utterly outmatched here.
Thalassari squads targeted the larger beasts. Bolts of any kind struck, punching through armor plating and detonating internal organs.
The portal creatures kept coming. The Phalanx warriors kept killing.
Reidar watched from the Mire's edge, his surviving summons arrayed around him. The slaughter was absolute. What had seemed like an overwhelming invasion was being systematically dismantled by soldiers whose lowest rank likely exceeded level 300.
A Kytinn warrior swooped past, firing a sustained beam that vaporized three serpents in a single sweep. A Thalassari squad coordinated their fire, bringing down a creature the size of a building in seconds.
The problem was, would they be able to kill them all? Would they be able to stop the level 763 monster?
Reidar left the area. He needed to get out of the monster's sight.
…
…
…
Reidar's Wolf sprinted through the forest. Using the crows would have been a bad idea. He needed to avoid drawing attention from the aerial monsters above.
The sky erupted in a storm of detonations, each blast painting the treetops in jagged flares of violet, crimson, and searing white.
Energy beams lanced through the atmosphere like celestial spears, weaving in patterns that turned the area into a hell of dancing shadows and blinding light.
The heat of the detonations warmed his back despite the distance, and the shockwaves rustled the leaves above, but Reidar didn't look back. He kept his focus locked on the dark forest ahead, on the rhythm of his wolf's paws pounding the earth, and on the desperate need to vanish before something above noticed the flicker of movement below.
The air itself vibrated with the thunder of the Phalanx's overwhelming firepower that promised annihilation to anything caught in its path, including him, if he remained too long.
At some point, some voices ahead made him slow. Through the trees, he spotted movement.
<The raid members…>
Helga was the first to emerge; her armor was streaked with blood. Aldric followed close behind, supporting a limping Sun Chaser. Kara brought up the rear, her bow held ready as she scanned the canopy for threats.
"Reidar!" Helga raised her hand. "Move your ass!"
The raid members clustered around their leaders.
Reidar noticed their state. These guys had seen better days, but it looked like they were all relatively ok. Most of the raid members were alive and well, but worn out and injured. Many people died during this raid, but those who survived learned and improved. So, these people were fairly strong.
"You killed the Mire-Crawlers…"
"It wasn't easy having to do that before your trait expired…" Aldric said.
"Yeah, you better make up for it."
"Later," Reidar said. "We need to find cover," he said. "If one of those things spots us, we are dead meat. Those things are everywhere."
He turned to Kara. "I need to find Jake and Lena…" She nodded. "I will bring you there…"