Every breath of wind outside came with a scream not of air, but of the creatures clawing through the crimson night.
Inside, Arlong sat on the cold metal floor. His one arm stretched forward, blue eyes glowing blue as data-like symbols streamed down his skin. His pupils flickered like circuit light.
The Quantum Barrier around the bunker rose outward, a translucent shell of shifting blue wall wrapping the structure like a cocoon.
"Come on," he muttered, teeth grinding. "Just a little wider."
The barrier expanded, trembling under the constant pressure of the chaos outside. Every second it grew, particles snapped, rewired, collapsed, and rebuilt again. His nose began to bleed, but Arlong didn't stop. The survivors behind him huddled together, praying quietly.
Outside the bunker, hell had a form.
Tom, his shirt torn and blade-hand trembling, cut through one of the abominations with a wide, invisible arc. The air distorted around his hand. A spinning, translucent spiral that screamed like glass under tension.
It sliced the creature in half without sound. The halves fell apart, dissolving into gray dust before touching the ground.
Another came, it was bigger this time. Crawling with a hundred legs, its ribs exposed like an open book, a snake-tongue whipping through the air.
Tom dashed forward. "Stay behind me!"
Elior had already dashed onward and his feet skimming the sand like he was gliding. Each punch he threw distorted the air. The impact didn't just crush; it disassembled.
His strikes carried weight in large scale of mass, breaking the logic that held bones together.
Beside him, Rosario fought barehanded too. His palms radiating faint golden light. When a creature lunged, Rosario twisted, caught its skull between both hands, and slammed it into the ground.
"You know," Rosario said after sighing dramatically, wiping ichor off his jaw, "I miss the days when monsters looked like monsters, not leftover ideas from a nightmare."
Elior kicked another creature aside. "At least nightmares does sleep, praise the system."
Tom laughed once but short and sharp while blocking a venomous spike midair. "You two sound like retired soldiers having tea."
Rosario grinned, ducked under a claw, and elbowed the beast's abdomen so hard it caved in. "Unfair, we never got our pension."
Above them, the crimson sky bled light very slow-moving clouds of molten red swirling like veins in a god's eye. Lightning without thunder split the air. It was neither day nor night, time itself was repeating every few seconds like a skipped scene from DVD.
Tom sliced again and a spiral slash cutting through four creatures at once. The air rippled, carrying their screams like a mosquito passing by your ear.
Elior, watched and briefly, said, "Your Face reacts well under critical conditions."
"Feels like it knows I don't have time to be afraid," Tom answered, spinning his wrist and calling another invisible blade.
Rosario punched through a creature's chest, pulling out something pulsating. A crystallized organ made of eyes. It dissolved in his grip.
"Whatever these things are," he muttered, "they're not moving. The Overseer's leftovers, probably."
Elior nodded grimly. "He's feeding through them. Testing the limits of our world's logic."
Tom kicked a dying creature away. "Let's Examine it!"
Rosario smirked. "That's the spirit, hero boy."
Another wave came which was hundreds this time, emerging from the dunes like a rising tide. Each had more limbs, more teeth, more impossible shapes than the last.
Arlong's voice came through the comms inside their minds, strained and shaking:
"Barrier's holding… barely. But if the density outside keeps increasing, I can't maintain coherence for long. Make it quick!"
"Quick?" Rosario scoffed, dodging a strike that nearly tore his sleeve. "He says that like we're ordering pizza!"
Elior's voice sharpened. "Tom, right side!"
Tom spun, his invisible spiral catching a lunging beast mid-air slicing it into vapor. The impact blew dust across the battlefield.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, three shadows under the blood-soaked sky.
Sweat, sand, and blood all mixing into one hue.
Elior spoke slowly, his tone remained calm,
"If this keeps going, the barrier won't be enough. We might have to use Lea Infra again."
Tom frowned. "You think it'll work this time?"
Elior looked upward at the trembling, broken moon and the endless red horizon.
"We'll make it work," he said. "Or there won't be a world left to fail."
Suddenly, the land started to shake briefly.
Rosario's fists pumped in harder.
"Guess round two just started."
A shadow loomed across the dunes, swallowing the crimson glow of the horizon.
The creature stepped into view. It was a giant, far beyond their size. Its body was wrapped in broken Spartan gear, corroded bronze plates hanging loose from its flesh, each clinking sound like the toll of a war bell. The helmet was cracked in half, revealing a face that wasn't a face. A cluster of eyes arranged like constellations, flickering in and out of alignment. Its hands were too large, dragging through the sand, each step crushing the dunes into ash.
Every time it exhaled, dust turned into smoke. Gravity itself was remembering something painful.
Inside the bunker, Grace stirred awake. Her head was still heavy; fever burned through her skin. The soft light from the bedside lamp trembled. She turned toward the window and was shocked.
The sky outside wasn't a sky anymore. It was bleeding. Clouds swirled like red ink in water, and that enormous shades towered across the land of Durkan. She pressed her hand on the window glass, voice was unfurnished.
"Tom…. Elior…."
She coughed. The fever made her dizzy, but she forced herself up, clutching the blanket like armor.
Outside, the real deal had begun.
Rosario squinted at the behemoth, exhaling a sharp breath through his teeth.
"Alright, that's officially the ugliest thing I've ever seen after that big worm."
He reached behind his back and drew his Omen. The air around it changed, forming ghostly forces.
Elior looked at him but Rosario was already gone.
In a flash, he threw the Omen into the distance. Before it even reached halfway, his body snapped out in the space out and he reappeared grabbing the knife mid-air where it was at that point.
Teleport.
Slash.
Reapeat.
Teleport.
Cut.
Spin.
Rosario chained teleportations through the air, each movement left afterimages of himself slicing through the giant's armor. He carved through the creature's massive knee joint, then reappeared atop its shoulder, stabbing down with a wild shout.
Black ichor sprayed out, sizzling on the sand like acid rain.
He vanished again, now standing in the air above its head — Omen poised in his weapon like lightning in his hand.
"Let's see how your helmet holds up!"
He threw the blade straight down.
Teleport.
Grab.
Slash.
The helmet split, crashing to the ground with a sound that shook the dunes.
The creature roared a sound that wasn't sound at all, but vibration and memories when it was a being. The force knocked Rosario backward mid-air, sending him tumbling through wind.
He caught himself, panting, blood on his lips. "Okay, that hurts."
Elior stepped forward, cracking his neck.
"Good work," he muttered. "Now get back."
He dashed forward, leaving a crater where he stood. The sand erupted beneath his steps. Elior met the giant's swing head-on and his blade locked up against its massive arm. The impact sent shockwaves across the dunes.
Tom and Vera shielded their faces as wind sliced past them.
Elior's muscles tensed; veins glowed faintly gold. He pushed back — the creature's arm trembled, bending under sheer force.
He pivoted, used the giant's weight, and slammed his elbow into its chest. The shockwave burst outward, tearing open the armor and spraying sand high into the air.
The creature staggered.
Elior landed, breathing steadily, eyes never leaving its towering frame. "You're not touching that bunker."
Then, from the distance, Arlong came out of the bunker.
He froze for a second seeing the sheer size of what they were fighting. His hand shook. The glow from the barrier still radiated faintly on his arm.
"Elior.…" he whispered, his voice barely audible. "....Is that even alive?"
Elior didn't answer and focused on the battle. He just smirked and dashed again, sliding under the monster's swing to strike its ankle.
Rosario teleported beside him mid-fight. "I told you not to start without me!"
"You already did, blud." Elior shot back. "Now finish it."
Together, they offenced with force. Rosario vanishing and reappearing with each strike, Elior grounding each blow with brutal precision. The giant roared again, slamming a massive hand into the sand. The force cracked the dunes into trenches.
Grace watched the flashes outside, her reflection trembling in the glass.
Her whisper barely carried through the wind.
"Please…. come back alive."
The battle raged as the men against a colossal-sized nightmare under the broken moon, continued.