The second quake hit at 2:43 p.m.
Ruby was halfway down Oxford Street, weaving through a thinning crowd with the same effortless precision she used in boardrooms and galas. She felt it before anyone screamed. The faint, nauseating lurch in her inner ear, the way the mana in the air spiked sharply, like static before a storm.
Here it comes.
The pavement shuddered. Storefront glass exploded outward in glittering waves. People fell. A bus fishtailed and slammed into a lamppost with a sound like a gunshot.
Ruby braced, boots sliding a fraction as she dropped her center of gravity instinctively.
This quake was different.
Not stronger.
Wrong.
It didn't roll through the ground so much as pull at it, like something deep below was adjusting its grip.
Ruby straightened slowly as the shaking subsided, eyes already scanning for threats.
That was when the screaming started in earnest.
Not panic screams.
Pain screams.
Someone pointed, finger shaking, voice cracking. "L-look—!"
Ruby followed the line of sight.
A tear had opened in the air above the street.
Not fire. Not lightning.
A split, like reality had been unzipped carelessly.
From it, something fell.
It hit the pavement with a wet crunch.
The thing twitched.
Then it stood.
It was humanoid in the most insulting way.
Roughly man sized. Gray green skin stretched over corded muscle. Jaw too wide. Teeth too many. Its eyes were small, bright, and delighted.
A goblin.
The System confirmed it with all the enthusiasm of a clerk stamping paperwork.
[Goblin Scavenger — Level 3]
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Then the goblin shrieked— high, piercing, ecstatic, and leapt.
Ruby moved first.
She didn't shout. Didn't warn.
Her ethereal blade snapped into existence mid stride, clean and lethal. She closed the distance in three steps, Agility carrying her forward faster than the goblin expected.
The blade took its head off in one smooth arc.
[Goblin Scavenger — Level 3 defeated]
The body collapsed in a spray of dissolving light.
Silence fell.
Then chaos doubled.
Another tear split open. Then another.
More shapes fell through— goblins, something bulkier with tusks, a skittering thing that crawled on too many limbs.
People ran.
Ruby didn't.
She exhaled, slow and deliberate.
"So," she murmured. "This is how it's going to be."
She pivoted, blade flashing, movements economical now; duck, slash, step aside. A goblin lunged; she sidestepped and gutted it. Another tried to flank her; she reversed her grip and drove the blade through its throat.
The System chimed repeatedly, almost pleased.
[Hobgoblin Scavenger — Level 3 defeated]
[Experience Points Gained]
[Goblin Scavenger — Level 2 defeated]
[Experience Points Gained]
[Level Up!]
Ruby felt it, the rush, the tightening focus, the way her body recalibrated on the fly.
She smiled.
Across the street, a man tripped and fell as a goblin pounced.
Ruby swore under her breath and threw her blade.
The ethereal weapon dissolved mid flight, reforming an instant later in her hand as the goblin collapsed, chest split open.
[Goblin Scavenger — Level 2 defeated]
[Experience Points Gained]
The man scrambled away without looking back.
Fine.
Ruby didn't need gratitude.
She needed momentum.
She took a quick breather to check her status and allocate her free points.
[STATUS]
Name: Ruby Fairchild
Class: Rogue
Title: None
Level: 3
XP: 44 / 174
——
HP: 100 / 100
MP: 70 / 70
——
CON: 10
STR: 8
DEX: 14
AGI: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 9
PIE: 8
LCK: 11
——
Free Points: 5
Let's assign two points in Strength, two points in Constitution, and one point in Wisdom.
[STATUS]
CON: 10 —> 12
STR: 8 —> 10
DEX: 14
AGI: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 9 —> 10
PIE: 8
LCK: 11
——
Free Points: 0
By the time the army arrived, it was already too late.
Ruby watched from a shop doorway as armored vehicles rolled in, soldiers spilling out with weapons raised and orders shouted into the din. They moved with drilled precision— covering angles, forming lines, establishing kill zones.
It didn't matter.
A creature twice the size of a car burst through a tear above them, landing in the middle of the formation and scattering soldiers like dolls. Gunfire erupted. Bullets tore into flesh.
The creature barely slowed.
Someone screamed as magic flared— an untrained burst of fire that scorched pavement and singed a goblin into ash.
The crowd watching from behind barricades gasped.
Ruby's phone buzzed violently in her pocket.
Signal, at last.
She answered without looking.
"Elara," she said. "Listen to me carefully."
"Ruby," Elara said breathlessly. "It's everywhere. The news— people are dying—"
"I know," Ruby cut in. "This isn't localized. It's global."
Elara's voice shook. "What do we do?"
Ruby watched as the soldiers fell back, monsters surging past them toward the city.
"We don't rush the Tower," Ruby said calmly. "Anyone who does dies."
"How can you know that?"
"Because I'm watching people with guns lose," Ruby replied. "And guns used to solve everything."
On the television mounted above the shop entrance, a new broadcast flickered to life.
A studio this time. The anchor was sweating, voice tight.
"…confirming that the structure at the equator has opened fully. Entities are emerging continuously. Governments worldwide are declaring states of emergency, some are using the term martial law—"
The feed switched.
Live footage.
Aerial view.
The Tower.
From its base, an endless tide of monsters poured forth, spreading like ink across the land.
The anchor's voice dropped to a whisper. "My God."
Ruby felt it then.
Not fear.
Scale.
"This is bigger than survival," Elara said quietly.
Ruby's gaze hardened.
"No," she said. "It's exactly survival."
She turned away from the screen, stepping back into the street as another tear split open nearby.
"Go home," Ruby told Elara. "Lock the doors. Pack essentials. I'll come to you later."
Elara hesitated. "Ruby—"
"I won't die," Ruby said, and for once, it wasn't arrogance. "I'm very good at this."
She ended the call.
Above the city, the sky trembled.
Across the world, people watched armies fail.
And deep within the Tower, something vast and patient adjusted its calculations.
Ruby Fairchild raised her blade again.
The day the world flinched was over.
Now it would break.