Year 2096, August 19, 14:49.
The sun hung heavy, glass towers and skyscrapers reached for it like begging hands, gleaming with heat.
The city burned beneath three pale moons.
A massive city stretching for thousands of miles, housing millions of residents.
However, despite the absurd size of the city, rarely did anyone dare roam the streets at this time of day. Cars flew by on the roads, their drivers comfortably seated while the AC worked at full capacity to cool them.
The air grew thick. A gloomy aura unhurriedly shrouded the city.
On the surface, nothing, but many could feel an inexplicable unease.
As one moved further from the city center, the skyscrapers gradually became fewer and shorter, and the unease eased as it mixed with the bustling marketplace at the city's outskirts.
"Come, fresh vegetables!"
"Vegetables at half the price!"
"Don't miss out. Red tomatoes!"
The voices of vendors echoed through the air, seemingly competing to shout louder.
Curtains spread from the houses, covering the tops of the alleys and shielding the marketplace from the merciless sun.
The vendors shouted, and the people pushed through the crowds.
Beautiful ladies wearing high heels and revealing clothes, reeking of cheap perfume. Everyone could smell a fishy business from them.
Others walked home from work, and while some carried several bags of vegetables and fruits, others didn't. Some people passed by the stalls, while others stopped to look at the prices, adding to the crowd.
The smell of sweat and rotten vegetables lingered in the air.
But everyone had their life, full of challenges and hardships. They were too focused on themselves to stop for a moment and realize the complexity of the lives of everyone around them, no one more than the other.
Several alleys away, where the marketplace didn't reach, a run-down house existed—an old house on the brink of collapse. The wooden door looked fragile, as if a gentle knock would break it.
Inside the house, a man sprawled across the mattress as a corpse half-forgotten.
The place stank of cigarettes.
Sweat clung to his skin; blood rushed to his face, painting him in exhaustion and regret as his head hung down the side of the bed.
His oily, shoulder-length brown hair swayed as the AC blew straight at him. The stubble beard and dark bags underneath his eyes painted him decades older.
Buzz-zzzt!
Suddenly, the AC on the wall powered off.
The man raised his head and looked at the AC.
"Great, they cut my electricity," He muttered.
Unwillingly, he rose and got down the bed, leaning against a wall.
Reaching into his pocket, he took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, taking a few puffs.
"Ahhhh..." He released a long, tired sigh. "Vincent, oh, Vincent," He shook his head. "How low have you fallen?"
Growl!
His stomach growled as if in response to his question.
"I don't have money for food," Vincent muttered helplessly. "If only the ball landed on black," He sighed regretfully, the image of the dreadful roulette wheel flashing before his eyes.
"The debt collectors will be here soon," He glanced at the door. "2.5 million Solars. How am I supposed to come up with that much money?"
Vincent could only sigh in acceptance as he took another puff of his cigarette.
"I can't delay those bastards anymore. I delayed them countless times already. This time, they will come and take me away to sell my organs."
Gathering strength, Vincent slowly stood up.
"Might as well finish the game," he muttered. His voice was dry- like someone who had already folded too many times but now finally accepted the irreparable situation. He has come to the end of the road.
He has already grown dull to this world and his miserable life. In his eyes, death was the freedom he longed for.
"Better than to let those bastards profit from my body."
Vincent walked out the door.
A heat wave hit his face as soon as he stepped outside.
He threw his almost-smoked cigarette and put a new one in his mouth, lighting it. As he took puffs of his cigarette, Vincent walked towards the nearest bridge.
He mindlessly walked through the alleys, his eyes dull as he thought of nothing and only occasionally took puffs of his cigarette until he reached the main road.
All sweaty, he walked by the side of the road.
Woof! Woof!
A dog suddenly barked as he walked past.
Its body trembled as it barked ferociously at the sky.
The horns of the passing cars filled the air as the traffic lights flickered uncontrollably, but Vincent didn't mind them as his destination was in sight. The bridge, his final destination.
A deep river flowed under the bridge.
The horizon flickered.
Click!
The clock hit 15:00.
The air grew heavy.
Rumble!
"W-What is this?" Vincent looked at the ground in shock, struggling to regain his foothold on the shaking ground. "An earthquake? At this time?"
Vooooom-BOOM!
The sound of shattering rebounded throughout the whole world.
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" Vincent looked at the sky, his eyes widening in terror and disbelief. The half-smoked cigarette fell out of his mouth, hitting the ground. "You gotta be kidding me,"
Terror filled his whole being. A sublime feeling attacked him as the hairs on his body stood up, and tears welled in his eyes. Tears of fear coming from the depths of his soul.
Crash!
Boom!
The cars crashed. But none of the drivers minded the crash or the damage to their vehicle. They all got out of their cars, staring at the sky. The kids in the backseats had their faces glued to the window, staring at the sky.
The sky has shattered.
A rift of violet and black bled in the sky, its edges shimmering with light that hurt to look at. No, a light that evoked primal fear within humans.
The swirling vortex of chaotic energy was visible from every corner of the world, filling every being with primal fear and unease.
The center of the rift twisted and distorted, pulling at the very fabric of reality as if it were a tear in the universe itself.
The atmosphere grew heavy, and the air suffocating.
The rift crackled with raw energy, distorting light into a disorienting blur.
The sky darkened. The rift devoured the sun's light.
Though it was the middle of the day, when the sun was at its highest, the sky darkened as if it were dusk.
The three moons became visible in the sky.
"W-What is going on?"
"What is that?"
"This gotta be a joke? Did the sky crack?"
"They must be playing with holographic technology." A man smiled bitterly, refusing to believe what he saw. "That's right. That must be it." He closed his eyes.
Panic spread among the people on the road. The whole traffic was stuck. The stuck horns of the crashed cars beeped continuously. But no one minded.
And not just between the people on the road. No human being on the planet existed who didn't panic or despair. From the homeless to the leaders of the nations, everyone was in terror.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Simultaneously, everyone felt a buzzing in their pockets. Their phones vibrated.
"Emergency Broadcast! Emergency Broadcast!"
A voice rang throughout the city.
The emergency broadcast activated on the phones of every citizen and on the holographic marketing screens on the more prominent buildings.
The screens turned red with the words "EMERGENCY BROADCAST".
"This is not a test. I repeat, this is not a test!" A feminine voice sounded on the emergency broadcast.
Vincent had no phone as he had sold it long ago, but even so, the emergency broadcast reached his ears from the phone of a nearby man.
"A rift has appeared in the atmosphere above our planet. The scientists detect astronomical amounts of unknown energy sweeping from the rift. From the readings of their equipment and their understanding, they claim this to be a dimensional rift."
The words "dimensional rift" rang through the citizens' minds. Not just in this city, but every nation had emergency broadcasts reporting the situation. The whole world was in turmoil and disbelief.
"Scientists are using the satellite to monitor changes around the planet. Now, I am with the lead scientist on the Lunaris-03X satellite, which monitors the entire blue planet. What do you have to say on th..."
The woman's voice stopped halfway through the sentence.
If one looked at the dimensional rift from the blue planet, one couldn't notice anything, but the same didn't apply to those already in space.
"There is movement at the dimensional rift!" The woman exclaimed hastily. "A creature has come out of the dimensional rift. The lead scientist is now observing the creature through a telescope."
"Such a magnificent creature." The scientist's voice sounded, admiring the creature from the rift.
In space.
A dark creature emerged from the rift—a creature with a humanoid shape and dark, smooth skin. A pair of dark horns grew vertically up from its forehead. It had a humanoid face, with the only distinctive feature being the pitch-black skin.
The chest and the eight-pack abs looked harder than steel. The spine ended in a dark tail that gradually became thinner, ending in what resembled a sharp trident head.
The muscular legs of the creature ended in black, slightly curved hooves, giving them a menacing look.
The creature floated in space, almost blending with the darkness. It released a primal, evil aura that could drive an ordinary person mad with fear just by looking at it.
Swoosh!
The creature sharply turned and looked at the Lunaris-03X satellite thousands of miles away. Its gaze passed through the telescope's magnifying glass and met the scientist's eye.
"Aghhh!" The scientist backed away from the telescope. His heart skipped a beat. "T-The creature looked at me."
The voice of the scientist rang on the emergency broadcast.
"What do you mea..." Just as the woman reporter intended to extend the scientist's statement, three objects emerged from the rift.
Swoosh!
Three towers flew out of the rift. Towers made of dark, never-before-seen material to humanity.
"Just now, three unidentified objects resembling towers came out of the dimensional rift. They are heading toward the moons." The woman reported.
Vincent and everyone in the city looked up at the sky. Indeed, they could see three tiny objects moving towards the moons.
"Wha..." the reporter's shocked voice sounded on the emergency broadcast. "Do you hear that? The creature is speaking? It is saying..."
Swoosh!
The creature moved. Almost instantly, it covered thousands of miles and appeared before the satellite.
Before the woman could report anything, the creature acted.
It extended its long arm at the satellite.
Dark energy gathered in the form of a sphere in the creature's palm.
Soundlessly, a dark blast fired from the creature's palm. The blast hit the satellite, exploding and creating a hole.
"Aghhhh!"
The screams of the reporter and the scientist were the last things broadcast through the emergency broadcast.
Buzzz!
The emergency broadcast cut to static. A whisper followed, a whisper resembling a sigh-not the reporter, not human.
The panic among the people died down, replaced with an eerie silence. Everything came to a halt, the atmosphere heavy with despair and disbelief.
And while the humans absorbed the broadcast they witnessed, danger approached from space...
The dark blast threw the satellite out of orbit, towards the blue planet.
As the satellite entered the planet's atmosphere, gravity pulled it down. It sped up and, facing the air resistance, flamed, turning into a giant, metallic mass of fire.
Boom!
The three towers crashed on the respective moons of the planet.
As the towers landed, a large cloud of moon dust and moonstones flew into the atmosphere, creating huge craters.
"What happened?"
"What happened to the reporter and the scientist?"
As the initial shock disappeared, an even greater panic erupted among the civilians.
"Look!" Someone pointed in the sky.
What looked like a fiery ball of flames descended from the sky.
BOOM!
The satellite crashed into the highest, most luxurious skyscraper in the city center.
Boom!
The remains of the skyscraper flew around as it was destroyed almost instantly. The radius of destruction spread for several kilometers, destroying the buildings and everything around. All the civilians in the radius of destruction met their end. The lucky ones met their ends instantly, while the unlucky suffered severe wounds, fated to suffer till their last breath.
'What is going on?' Vincent stared into the distance as the highest skyscraper, the symbol of wealth, prosperity, and honor, vanished. All the buildings collapsed, and a huge dust cloud rose. However, being dozens of kilometers away, he could not know the actual extent of the damage.
In space.
The dark creature looked at the three moons. After seeing the three towers stationed on the moons, it shifted its gaze to the blue planet.
With its sharp eyes, it saw where the satellite had crashed.
Swoosh!
The creature disappeared from space and rapidly descended towards the blue planet. It only accelerated as it got caught in the planet's atmosphere, and gravity pulled it down.
Surprisingly, the creature had no trouble resisting the resistance of the air with its pure physical body.
BOOM!
The creature arrived in the air above the city. It only needed a few seconds to reach here.
A sound barrier broke as it suddenly stopped in the air, sending ripples through the air. It hovered in the air, arrogantly watching the humans below it.
"Creatures,"
A voice rang in the mind of every citizen of the city.
'What is this?' Vincent looked around.
"Where is he speaking from?"
"How can we hear him when he is so high in the sky?"
The citizens looked around in fear.
'It's speaking directly into our mind.' Vincent realized. 'Could it be telepathy?'
"I am the vice-commander of the demon army, Gallion the Shadowweaver!" The menacing, arrogant voice of the demon rang in the minds of the citizens. "Behold! Behold the might of a high demon! Behold the might of my demon race. Behold the might of the army of my king!
Pitiful creatures! We came to conquer your world. Run, hide, struggle! Flee! Tiny insects! You can't survive!"
Swoosh!
Dark objects flew out of the dimensional rift and approached the blue planet. As soon as they entered the atmosphere, they engulfed in flames.
Civilians knelt in fear while others stared at the sky, expressions filled with nothing but pure terror.
"W-What's that?" A civilian pointed in the sky.
Dark objects engulfed in flames covered the sky of the blue planet.
As the objects got closer, everyone could see them. Towers.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The objects fell all over the globe.
Terrifying earthquakes erupted all around the planet, causing prosperous and magnificent cities to collapse.
The towers that fell in the middle of the oceans caused massive tsunamis, which ravaged the coastal cities to the ground.
The whole world was in chaos. But this was just the beginning of a new era—the era of Towers—the End Days.
Swoosh!
Everyone stared into the sky with terror as a tower was right above their city.
BOOOOM!
The tower crashed in the city center, where the collapsed skyscraper was. A massive shockwave erupted as the tower crashed, sending waves through the ground and air, reducing the buildings to rubble.
The radius of destruction was far more than what the satellite did. It span for dozens of kilometers.
What the civilians thought impossible to achieve happened in just a few moments. The magnificent city and prosperous buildings vanished, ravaged to the ground. Now, only the outskirts of the thriving city remained, and only the buildings on the outskirts survived.
The shockwave was too weakened when it reached the outskirts.
"Ahhhh!"
As the shockwave hit, it threw Vincent back in the air.
He crashed down on the ground.
"Just what is going..." His words stuck in his throat as he looked at the tower in the city center.
The tower reached high in the sky—higher than any building humanity has ever built. When it fell, it released a dark, eerie mist that surrounded the area of the crater it created—a crater with a radius of more than a kilometer.
Rumble!
Dark clouds gathered at the top of the tower.
Forty-six towers fell all over the world, including the three towers on the moons: 49 towers in total left the dimensional rift.
Gallion, the vice commander of the demons, observed the situation down in the city as he floated near the top of the tower.
All the buildings that collapsed, including the skyscrapers, claimed a dozen million lives. Barely a third of the city's population managed to survive.
"Creatures!" Gallion spread his arms wide open. "LET THE PANDEMONIUM BEGIN!!!"
Creeeach!
ROOOAR!
Screeeech!
As soon as he spread his arms wide open, he disappeared from the sky.
Immediately after his disappearance, demonic screams rang from the tower. They echoed the city, intensifying the terror of the civilians.
Not long after the screams, holes opened in the tower, and demonic monsters ran out.
Monsters resembling hounds ran on all four. Flying monsters flew, covering the sky. They ran from the tower, killing and devouring every human in their way.
The monsters spread throughout the whole city in an instant.
The screams of the humans echoed as they ran for their lives.
Creeech!
A monster the size of a human flew in Vincent's direction. The monster had featherless dark violet skin and a downward beak, almost 1 meter long, full of hollow holes. It had bat-like wings with holes through them, with a wingspan of 3 meters.
Vincent wanted to die -but when death came screaming on wings, something feral inside him crawled to live.
If that monster got him, he would die the most horrible death.
But he found his legs frozen in fear when he wanted to run. The other civilians around him just stared at the incoming certain death.
"RUN!" Vincent snapped out of his fear. His body released adrenaline, increasing his heartbeat and pumping more blood throughout the body.
He immediately stormed back, running for his life. His roar snapped everyone else out, and they ran for their lives.
The parents ran to their cars, took their children from the backseats, and, dragging them, ran for their lives.
'I don't know what the fu.ck is going on!' Vincent thought as he ran with all his might, not looking back. 'But the world is in chaos. Those debt-collector bastards won't come for me."
"That means, if I survive now, I'm a free man!"