Chapter 46: Give The Green Light

City-wide emergency sirens wailed across the hills of Victoria Hill.

Inside the study of Imperial Crest Manor, Evren’s phone buzzed with a call from Mikay.

Evren tapped the screen and brought the phone to his ear.

"Chairman!" Mikay’s voice was fast and tense over the line. "The S-Rank Shadow Rift in Sector Four just breached! It’s an unstable tear... low-tier Shadow Crawlers are already slipping out of the portal into the surrounding streets."

"What’s the situation with the civilian sectors?" Evren asked in a calm voice.

"It’s bad, Chairman," Mikay explained. "The rift opened directly above the old industrial square. The residential slums right next to it have over ten thousand factory workers and families. The streets are too narrow for standard emergency ambulances, and the local police are completely cut off."

"What about the other guilds?"

"Prescott Guild deployed their hunter battalions, but they’re only protecting their own private smelting foundries and crystal warehouses," Mikay replied with disgust. "They locked their iron gates and refused to send a single man into the civilian quarter. Captain Marcus and the Crimson Shield hunters are trying to hold the southern bridge bottleneck with the police, but they’re getting overrun by the monster swarm."

Evren’s eyes turned cold. "Give the guild the green light. Tell Commander..."

"Derrick."

"Yeah, Derrick. Tell him to deploy our combat vanguard, and have Tobias mobilize the armored transport fleet to reinforce Captain Marcus. Clear that bottleneck and get every civilian out."

"Right away, Chairman," Mikay replied. "Transmitting deployment orders now."

Evren hung up and walked out into the living hall.

Amber was already standing by the front door, wearing a simple dark coat over her clothes with her twin dragon-bone sabers strapped securely to her belt.

Seeing Evren walk up, Amber took a breath and immediately spoke.

"Before you say anything, Evren, I’m coming with you," she declared firmly. "I have my wings back, my mana is stable, and I’m not going to sit around watching while you dive into an S-Rank rift alone. I will..."

"I wasn’t planning on stopping you, Amber," Evren cut in calmly with a small smile.

Amber blinked in surprise as she had already prepared her mind for a bit of resistance. "You... you weren’t?"

"You’re an S-Rank Valkyrie, Amber," Evren said, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear. "It will be an honour to fight beside you."

A warm, bright smile broke across Amber’s face and her shoulders relaxed. "Then let’s go."

Arthur stepped forward, holding Evren’s dark trench coat. "The vehicle is idling at the front steps, Chairman."

"Thank you, Arthur," Evren said, slipping into the coat and fastening the S-Rank Frost-Bane Cleaver across his back. "Keep the manor gates secured and monitor Zephyra’s room."

"Consider it done, sir."

—

Twenty minutes later, the industrial district of Sector 4 looked like a war zone.

Thick black smoke and toxic purple mist filled the air, making it smell like burning rubber and sulfur.

Dozens of four-legged, shadowy beasts with sharp jagged claws and glowing red eyes were pouring out from the spatial tear above the central plaza.

SCREEECH!

"Hold the line! Don’t let them push through!" Captain Marcus roared.

Marcus slammed his iron shield into a lunging Shadow Crawler, sending it tumbling backward with a loud crack.

Beside him, fifteen Crimson Shield hunters and twenty municipal police officers were firing mana rifles and casting fire spells. But there were too many beasts. The creatures moved with terrifying speed, scaling the brick walls of the old factories and leaping down at the barricade.

Behind the police line, hundreds of terrified workers, mothers, and crying children were trapped against the narrow bridge, screaming in panic as the bottleneck choked the exit.

"Captain! The left barricade is giving out!" a young police officer shouted in terror as two beasts tore through a concrete barrier. "Our mana shields are down to ten percent! We can’t hold them!"

"Stand your ground!" Marcus gritted his teeth, his arms trembling under the continuous impact of the monster claws. "If we fall, these people will be slaughtered!"

Just as a large Shadow Crawler jumped over the barrier with its jaw wide open, a loud roar shook the street.

The rumble of diesel engines shook the pavement as five massive, black-and-gold armored transport trucks tore around the corner at high speed, drifting aggressively into position across the entire bridge entrance.

The hydraulic ramps slammed down onto the asphalt, and fifty disciplined hunters wearing reinforced black-and-gold tactical armor rushed out in tight formation.

Leading the frontline strike force was Commander Derrick, a seasoned A-Rank veteran with a battle-scarred jaw and a heavy broadsword.

"Apex Vanguard, deploy energy barriers!" Commander Derrick bellowed. "Establish a defensive perimeter around the evacuation zone! Crossfire formation on my mark!"

Three energy pylons slammed into the street, instantly projecting a bright blue hexagonal defense barrier that cut the street in half, cleanly blocking the beasts from reaching the fleeing civilians.

Behind the barrier, Tobias stepped out from the lead transport cab with a comms headset, immediately shouting through a megaphone.

"Apex Logistics evacuation convoy in position! Citizens, follow the blue lights onto the armored trucks! We have medical supplies and warm seats inside!"

Captain Marcus wiped blood and soot from his face, staring at the arrival of Commander Derrick and the heavily equipped Apex units in absolute shock.

"Derrick?!" Marcus gasped with a relieved laugh. "You took command of Apex’s vanguard?!"

"Chairman Evren built the most disciplined unit in the city, Marcus," Derrick grinned, unsheathing his broadsword and cleaving a lunging Shadow Crawler in two. "Crimson Shield and police units, form up with my men behind the barrier. Hold this line while Tobias loads the citizens."

"On it!" Marcus roared.

With Apex’s armored barrier holding the line, Commander Derrick and Marcus anchoring the defense, and Tobias directing the vehicle loading, the panic turned into an orderly, rapid evacuation.

Apex drivers helped elderly workers and carried crying children into the reinforced trucks, keeping everyone safe from the toxic mist.

Up in the air, news helicopters from the Veridia News Network hovered above the district, broadcasting the entire scene live to millions of television screens across the city.

The live camera feed split into two screens.

On the left screen, Prescott Guild’s private guards stood behind thick steel gates with cold, indifferent faces, watching the chaos from behind electrified fences to protect their private crystal warehouses.

On the right screen, the black-and-gold armored units of Apex Conglomerate were holding the frontline, guiding bleeding citizens and families into safe transport carriers.

"Look at this contrast, citizens of Veridia," the news reporter announced with deep emotion on live television. "While the city’s oldest titan, Prescott Guild, hides behind private walls to protect its corporate factories, the newly established Apex Guild has deployed its entire fleet to save thousands of innocent lives in Sector Four."

A black Maybach sped through the outer police barricade, coming to a smooth stop right at the frontline command post.

Evren stepped out of the vehicle, his dark trench coat fluttering in the cold wind.

Beside him, Amber stepped out, her hand resting calmly on the hilts of her twin dragon-bone sabers.

Seeing them arrive, the crowd of rescued citizens and police officers let out a loud cheer, parting respectfully to make way for them.

Tobias, Commander Derrick, and Captain Marcus quickly ran over, saluting.

"Chairman! Lady Amber!" Commander Derrick reported proudly. "The defensive perimeter is fully secured, and Tobias’s convoy has already moved over two thousand five hundred civilians into the safe zone."

"Excellent work, Derrick, Tobias," Evren nodded with approval.

Marcus pointed his sword up toward the central factory square.

Hovering sixty meters above the collapsed roof of an old warehouse was a massive, swirling purple spatial vortex. It spun violently in the sky, crackling with dark lightning and howling with terrifying pressure.

"The beasts crawling out are just the outer vanguard, Chairman," Marcus warned. "The spatial tear is expanding rapidly. If the core boss inside isn’t killed before the ten-hour mark, the entire rift will explode, wiping out everything in a five-mile radius."

Evren looked up at the roaring purple portal. His eyes were completely calm.

"Derrick, Marcus, Tobias," Evren ordered. "Keep this outer perimeter locked down. Make sure no beasts escape into the neighboring residential districts."

"Understood, Chairman!" all three men replied firmly. "What about the rift?"

Evren adjusted his grip on the frost cleaver across his back. "Amber and I are going inside to take down the boss."

Amber stepped up beside him.

She released a pulse of mana into her twin blades, and with a sharp hum, two large golden-crimson Valkyrie wings erupted from her back, lighting up the smoky street with bright, beautiful light.

She reached out and took Evren’s left hand.

"Ready when you are, Chairman," Amber smiled.

With a powerful flap of her mana wings, Amber lifted off the ground, carrying the two of them straight up into the stormy sky.

Thousands of cheering citizens, police officers, and news cameras watched as Evren and Amber flew straight into the swirling vortex, diving headfirst into the dark abyss of the S-Rank Shadow Rift.