The discovery of void creatures exhibiting intelligence got the whole galactic community shaken to their core.
With every hunt the hunters go on, they come back with new discoveries. When they fight the void creatures, they don't just react and attack aimlessly.
They moved and evaded attacks they could evade and attack when they got an opening. Wanton destruction was not what they were about.
Low-level void creatures still behaved the same way, but that changed when Class D and above void creatures were introduced into the mix.
Then, the frequency at which each unit of a team went out became more frequent as some even lost their lives in the heat of battle.
Hunters had to always be on alert to stop incoming void creatures from entering their star systems.
As time passed with hunters pushing themselves on a regular basis, they began to notice their abilities took too long to deal damage and kill the monstrosities.
The discovery was a horrifying one, but there was nothing they could do at the moment. Each new piece of discovery left the hunters feeling despair.
Then a few weeks later, one of the most dreaded news humanity feared happened.
A veil tear appeared right in the heart of a star system civilization. The tear leaked vast amounts of void energy and made the region unsuitable for human life.
The number of void creatures that also came through that tear was overwhelming. The S Class hunter in charge of the region had to step in to control the situation.
However, the populace of that star system had to be evacuated due to the spreading void energy as the Orbital Rings surrounding the planets couldn't keep up with the void energy.
The capital had to send many Colossal Class ships to evacuate the planets before things took a turn for the worse. Fortunately, no accidents occurred during the exodus.
Now more than ever, humans needed a way to seal veil tears, even if it was just temporary.
Researchers and engineers redoubled their efforts in their bid to come up with a way to use void energy in their technology and weapons.
No breakthroughs were made yet, but the leaders had assured the hunters that something was in the works after getting new data. The news was a breath of fresh air—a blessing in their hour of greatest need.
But their universe had no intention of putting the breaks on…
....
Region 4 of Sector 2
Mason Lee was going about his duties instructing his hunters when a piece of news reached him from the deep-space monitoring team.
[Lord Mason, there is something you should see.]
Hearing the ominous words, Mason didn't dare allow his mind to wonder. 'It's better to see than make any rash conclusions.' With a deep sigh, his figure disappeared and reappeared in the facility on the Orbital Ring.
Quickly reaching the monitoring centre, he turned to the large screens and then asked the director. "What is it?"
Mason could already tell what that was just from looking, but he left it to the experts to tell him.
"What you're looking at is a veil tear that appeared in the Aetherion Star System." The director began with a slight gulp Mason didn't miss.
The Aetherion System was in their home galaxy, but the system did not support life—at least for the normal folks.
The planets in that system were used as storage facilities to store techs and weapons built in the region.
"And?" Mason wasn't sure why it should draw his attention, but at the back of his mind, something similar to this happened a few years back and the word he didn't want to hear came out.
"It's unusual, sir. It's not behaving like a normal veil—" The director did not finish his sentence when Mason raised a hand to stop him.
He was already dreading what might appear through that veil tear. "I'll go take a look. Also, send a report about this to the capital." He said and was about to leave when the director added a final observation they made.
"Void Creatures are already in the vicinity, Lord Mason. And just like the veil tear, they are behaving strangely."
Mason froze for a moment and then nodded in acknowledgement before his figure disappeared.
Void creatures behaving strangely was no longer a shock as it has become a common occurrence with them exhibiting intelligence and a hierarchy.
.....
Mason boarded his ship with a few of his high-level hunters. But he had a feeling he was going to need help.
"Contact Zol and tell him to meet me at this coordinate. Inform him about the anomaly." He commanded his primary AI assistant.
[Right away, sir.]
'This is almost like a repeat of that time.' He sighed in resignation. 'I hope whatever the leaders are cooking comes quickly. That may be our only hope.'
[Lord Zol will be joining you at the location in an hour.]
Mason nodded at the feedback as he stood with hands clasped behind him. His gaze was focused forward, staring at the passing tunnel lights of the hyperspace.
Within half an hour, his ship arrived a few trillion kilometres from the location and entered stealth mode. Mason wasted no time donning his armour before stepping into the vacuum of space.
"You guys stay onboard. I'll summon you when I need help," He instructed the Class A hunters aboard the ship, all suited up and ready for combat.
Without delay, he took off at speeds faster than light, inching closer to the visible veil tear between two planets which had their orbits disrupted.
The effects of that would be disastrous, but thankfully, there were no signs of life in the region. Of course, the devastation caused to the storage facilities can't be understated.
Mason stopped a few hundred million kilometres away from the veil tear, making sure to hold back his presence. He observed as the veil tear pulsed intermittently.
And unlike the one he witnessed many years ago, this one had thousands of void creatures ranging from A-tier to D-tier in its vicinity. And they were all staring at the veil as if waiting for something to come through.
Mason observed the gathering with a bit of shock. 'This can't be good at all.' He gulped in spite of himself.
Never had he seen this many Class A void creatures gathered in one place. It was like some sort of meeting was about to take place.