Chapter 113: The Tenth Day

Chapter 113: Chapter 113: The Tenth Day

For several seconds, dead silence hung over the concrete plaza.

General Davis just stared at Aria, then at Felix, and finally toward the open bunker hatch behind them.

"Another world?" his voice was barely a whisper.

"Yes," Aria said simply.

He looked like he wanted to dismiss it as a joke but he had already seen too much. The bizarre, glowing armor. The impossible weapons. The fact that an water blade had formed from thin air and shadows had moved like living rope.

Normal humans didn’t do that.

The general slowly lowered his hand from his sidearm. "What do you mean, another world?"

Aria glanced at Felix, who stepped forward. "We came through a gate."

"A gate?"

"A portal. A tear in space that links two different dimensions."

Davis frowned. "We have never seen anything like that."

"I believe you," Felix said, looking past the wire fence toward the peaceful city. "Your world has never developed mana. You have no magic."

"Magic? Mana?" Davis repeated, looking baffled.

"Let us explain," Aria cut in. "Back in our world, gates appear without warning. They lead into strange dimensions packed with monsters. For five hundred years, we have had to fight them to survive."

"We don’t have monsters here," Davis said, shaking his head.

"We noticed. That is why your world is in extreme danger." Aria’s face turned grim.

"When a gate first opens, it takes time for the two worlds to fully connect."

"How much time?"

"Ten days," Aria stated. "For nine days, the barrier holds the beasts inside. On the tenth day, the gate stabilizes completely and the monsters spill out into the open world."

"And before that tenth day?" Davis asked.

"We hunt the boss," Felix explained. "Every gate has a ruler. If we kill the boss before day ten, the gate collapses and seals shut."

Davis rubbed his chin. "How long has your gate down there been open?"

"Three days," Aria replied. "We still have seven days to clear it."

Davis visibly let out a breath, his shoulders dropping.

Then Felix caught a sudden, sharp twitch in the older man’s expression. It wasn’t relief anymore. It was pure, icy dread.

"You know something," Felix said, his blue eyes narrowing.

"Excuse me?"

"You’ve seen another gate."

The plaza went dead still. Davis’s jaw locked tight. Aria caught the reaction immediately.

"Is there another gate on this planet?" Aria demanded.

Davis hesitated. He looked at his soldiers, then at the strangers. Finally, he spoke: "Yes."

The strike team froze. "Where?" Aria asked.

"Ten miles east of here. Right on the edge of the central metro district."

"What rank is it?" Felix asked.

"I don’t know what ’rank’ means," Davis said, his voice hollow. "It’s just a massive, swirling hole in the sky. It’s huge."

Darius stepped up, his deep voice rumbling.

"How long has it been there?"

Davis swallowed hard.

"Nine days. Today is the ninth day."

Aria went rigid. "Exact time?"

"Tomorrow morning," Davis whispered. "At dawn."

Every trace of casual banter vanished from the team.

Nine days. A gate in the middle of a massive city, on a world with zero magic, filled with baseline humans who had never seen a monster in their lives.

"How many people live in that zone?" Aria asked, her voice cracking like a whip.

"Why?"

"How many people, General?!"

"It’s our largest commercial and residential hub," Davis said, sweating now. "Around four hundred thousand people."

Aria didn’t hesitate for a single second.

"Evacuate them. Now."

"What?!"

"Every civilian within a five-mile radius needs to be gone before sunrise," Aria ordered.

"Are you insane?!" Davis barked. "I can’t displace four hundred thousand citizens because ten armed trespassers walked out of an old bunker telling ghost stories!"

"You aren’t listening to me," Aria said, taking a step toward him. "When that gate hits day ten tomorrow, thousands of monsters are going to pour into your streets. They will tear through your concrete walls, eat your people, and turn that city into a graveyard."

Davis scoffed, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"We have tanks. We have fighter jets and artillery. If wild animals come out of a hole, we shoot them."

"Your bullets won’t do anything against high-tier mana armor," Felix warned. "You have no idea what is waiting on the other side."

"I need proof before I shut down a whole city," Davis snapped.

Aria let out a tired sigh. She glanced behind her shoulder. "Kael."

Kael’s face broke into a broad, wicked grin.

"Finally. I thought you’d never ask."

"Just a spark," Aria warned. "Do not burn down the fence."

"Understood, Boss."

Kael casually took two steps forward. The soldiers around the perimeter panicked, snapping their rifle bolts back.

"Don’t shoot!" Davis shouted, raising his hand.

Kael raised his right hand. He snapped his thumb and middle finger together.

SNAP.

A tiny orange spark flicked upward into the clear blue sky.

The moment that tiny spark climbed a hundred feet into the air, it erupted.

BOOOOOOM!

A blinding pillar of roaring, swirling flame blasted straight into the clouds, reaching hundreds of meters into the atmosphere.

The entire afternoon sky turned a violent, blazing orange. A massive wave of superheated wind swept across the plaza, tearing up dust and roaring like a freight train.

Soldiers fell backward onto the pavement. Several dropped their rifles to cover their faces, crying out in panic as the blistering heat washed over their skin.

Kael waved his hand lazily.

The monstrous pillar of fire vanished instantly, as if it had never existed. The sky returned to blue. Cool air rushed back into the vacuum.

"That was about zero-point-five percent of my output," Kael announced into the stunned, dead silence. He glanced at Aria. "Maybe less?"

"About that," Aria said calmly.

General Davis was shaking. His face was gray, his mouth hanging wide open.

Aria stepped right up to him. "That is one man on our team. We have nine more. And whatever comes out of that gate tomorrow will be an entire army of beasts that can do far worse."

Davis swallowed dryly, unable to speak.

"If that gate is S-rank," Felix added quietly, "a single stray breath from a boss monster will level four city blocks. Your tanks will melt into slag."

Davis looked at the cracked concrete where Kael had stood, then at the ten calm faces in front of him.

"What happens if you can’t stop them?" Davis choked out.

Felix looked the general right in the eye.

"Then your world ends tomorrow, General,"

Felix said, his voice deadly calm. "We won’t let that happen. But you need to give us room to fight. Get your people out."

Davis closed his eyes, exhaled a trembling breath, and grabbed his radio.

"All units, patch me through to Central Command. Sound the sirens. We are ordering a total evacuation of Sector Four."

---

The evacuation started within the hour.

At first, the city officials tried to handle it smoothly. Emergency broadcasts flashed red over television screens and phones. Sirens wailed from rooftops. Police cruisers blocked off highways, redirecting traffic toward the outer countryside.

Then, pure panic took over.

Four hundred thousand people flooded the boulevards at once. Cars collided at intersections, honking frantically. Sidewalks became seas of shouting families dragging suitcases and carrying crying children.

"Why are we leaving?!"

"Where are the buses?!"

"They say monsters are coming! Are we at war?!"

"This is ridiculous! I’m not leaving my store!"

Armed soldiers moved block by block, pounding on doors and clearing apartment buildings. By nightfall, the chaotic tide of people had finally been pushed past the military checkpoints.

Twenty-four hours passed.

The morning sun rose over a ghost town.

The busy metro district was dead silent. Skyscrapers stood tall, store windows were dark, and thousands of abandoned cars sat frozen in the streets.

Five miles out, the military had set up barricades, artillery batteries, and rocket launchers. But right at ground zero, five hundred meters from the rift, the air felt suffocating.

Felix stood in the middle of a four-lane highway, looking up.

The gate was terrifying.

It hovered fifty feet above an open plaza, dwarfing the surrounding ten-story buildings. It was four times larger than the gate in the bunker: a jagged, pulsing rift of violent purple and black energy that warped the air around it like a heat wave.

"It’s waking up," Felix said.

"Get in formation," Aria commanded.

The team snapped into position. Aria stood at the point with her silver spear gripped tight. Darius planted his boots beside her, his massive tower shield resting on the asphalt.

Seraphina and Liora took the flanks. Felix took the center, his green mana humming beneath his skin, ready to mend wounds or rip life away.

Behind them, a single squad of twenty soldiers remained behind a sandbag wall, led by General Davis himself.

Felix turned around. "General. You should be at the command post five miles back."

"I am the commander of this sector," Davis said through gritted teeth, gripping his rifle. "If my city is going to burn, I’m going to see what lights the fire."

"Once the gate breaks, we can’t protect you,"

Felix warned. "Keep your heads down."

Davis nodded grimly.

Kael leaned over his staff, smirking at the trembling soldiers. "Last chance to run, boys."

"Kael, shut up," Lena snapped.

Suddenly, the air pressure dropped.

THUMP.

A sound like a giant heartbeat echoed through the empty concrete canyons.

THUMP. THUMP.

The purple tear in the sky began to twist. Spiders of black lightning cracked across the surface of the portal, tearing into the surrounding buildings and blasting glass into rain.

"Heads up!" Aria shouted. "Here it comes!"

SKRRRRR-BOOM!

The rift tore open like shredded fabric.

A massive shockwave blew out from the portal, flipping parked cars into the air and shattering every window for three blocks. Dust and smoke choked the streets.

Then came the roar.

ROOOOOAAARRRRR!

Out of the smoke stepped the first beast.

It was five meters tall, covered in thick obsidian scales, with four crimson eyes and razor-sharp curved horns. Dark, corrupted purple fire dripped from its fangs, sizzling against the asphalt.

General Davis gasped, stumbling back into the sandbags. "God in heaven..."

Before anyone could breathe, another monster leapt through. Then five more. Then twenty.

Massive reptilian beasts, winged gargoyles with barbed tails, and four-armed humanoid fiends poured out of the portal like a broken dam.

Every single creature radiated thick, suffocating mana and worse, their veins glowed with that sickening, familiar violet chemical light.

The booster drug, Felix realized, his eyes turning cold. These aren’t wild beasts. Every single one of them has been artificially mutated.

The portal didn’t stop. Hundreds of monsters hit the ground, clawing across the roads, their roars shaking the skyscrapers.

Davis stared at the endless sea of fangs and claws, his voice cracking into sheer panic: "Fall back! FALL BACK NOW!"

The soldiers broke into a dead sprint, abandoning their heavy guns and scrambling toward their armored trucks.

Kael watched them run, snickering under his breath. "Told ya."

The ground violently shook as another massive wave of winged predators erupted from the gate, blocking out the morning sun. Thousands of glowing red eyes locked onto the ten humans standing in the middle of the road.

Felix cracked his knuckles, emerald mana blazing across his arms.

Behind him, Seraphina raised a shimmering blade of water and lightning.

Liora’s shadows pooled across the street, turning the road black.

Darius slammed his shield into the pavement, shattering the asphalt.

Aria pointed her spear straight at the horde.

"They think this world has no defenders," Felix said, a cold smirk touching his lips. "Let’s show them what an S-rank team does."

---