The sky above Jakarta split open with crimson light.
The main cannon of the Dominion warship fired directly into the cosmic rift.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
It wasn't an ordinary explosion.
Space above the city was being forcibly torn apart.
The clouds split.
The air screamed.
Terra Ultima's golden dome trembled violently.
Cracks spread across its surface like shattered glass, as though something were pounding against it from the inside.
Deep beneath the city, inside the underground headquarters—
every screen went dark for a moment.
Then they flickered back to life.
All displaying the same color.
RED.
Farhan stared at the monitor, his breath catching in his throat.
"The orbital gate is now thirty percent open!"
Lila went pale.
"That's impossible..."
Kai looked upward.
"Dominion has just invited something in."
Bimo raised his metal rod.
"Great."
"Apparently, one apocalypse wasn't enough."
Evacuation alarms blared throughout the city.
On the streets—
people ran for their lives.
Cars collided in the chaos.
Buildings reflected the crimson glow spreading across the sky.
Children screamed.
Ambulance sirens mingled with prayers and desperate cries.
The city that had finally begun to breathe—
was being strangled once more.
Arga rushed out of the headquarters with the others.
But the moment they reached the surface—
they all stopped.
Jakarta was burning.
Not with ordinary flames.
Black meteors rained down from the orbital gate.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Every Void fragment that struck the ground exploded, releasing small creatures covered in black scales.
Void Spawn.
They crawled across the streets.
Climbed buildings.
Hunted down the nearest humans.
Sinta immediately took command.
"Split into formations!"
"Protect the civilians! Forget about kill counts!"
She pointed in quick succession.
"Bimo, head east!"
"Dika, take the west!"
"Farhan and Lila, stay with me!"
"Kai, protect Arga!"
Arga turned toward her.
"What about you?"
Sinta activated her weapon.
"I'll protect everyone I can reach."
Then she charged ahead.
---
EASTERN DISTRICT
A school bus lay overturned at an intersection.
Flames were spreading across its tires.
Children were trapped inside.
Bimo leaped over the wreckage of a car and rushed toward it.
"All right! Handsome hero coming through!"
A Void Spawn lunged at him.
Bimo swung his metal rod.
CRASH!
The creature was sent flying into a streetlight.
He kicked the bus window.
BANG!
"Everyone out! One at a time!"
A small child was sobbing uncontrollably.
Bimo scooped up two children at once.
"Come on! Let's see who can get out the fastest!"
An explosion erupted behind him.
A wave of heat swept across his back.
But he kept running.
---
WESTERN DISTRICT
An apartment building was tilting dangerously.
Its main support column had cracked.
Dozens of residents were trapped in the lobby.
Dika stood beneath a massive concrete beam that was beginning to collapse.
He caught it with both hands.
The muscles in his arms tore under the strain.
Blood streamed down his skin.
Yet his feet refused to move.
"Get out!"
The residents rushed beneath his arms.
An elderly woman stumbled while carrying a baby.
Dika gritted his teeth.
"Get up!"
He forced the beam higher.
The woman crawled to safety.
A second later—
the beam crashed down onto his shoulder.
CRACK!
Dika dropped to one knee.
But he kept holding it.
He refused to let go.
---
CITY CENTER
Farhan rushed toward the main power station.
The control panels were burning.
The communication network had collapsed.
"I need access!"
He tore open the cable housing with trembling hands.
Lila guarded the entrance, gripping her ancient tablet.
"Two Spawn on your left!"
Farhan didn't look up.
"Five seconds!"
Lila hurled a blade of light.
One creature fell.
The other lunged—
but Kai emerged from the shadows and cut it down in a single motion.
Farhan connected the final cable.
CLICK.
The city's emergency network came back online.
The public announcement system activated.
"Attention, all civilians!"
"Evacuation corridors are now open in the southern sector!"
Road barriers shifted automatically.
Traffic signals changed.
Thousands of people were given a route to safety.
---
ABOVE THE CITY
Arga stood in the middle of a shattered highway.
Another black meteor was falling straight toward a hospital.
He raised the MBG Lunchbox.
All thirty-one rice grains spun wildly inside.
"Don't..."
Golden light erupted from his body.
WHOOOOOMMMMM!
A radiant shield caught the meteor in midair.
The road cracked beneath his feet.
Blood trickled from his nose.
Arga let out a furious scream.
"STAY AWAY FROM THEM!"
The meteor shattered into black dust.
The hospital was safe.
But Arga collapsed to his knees.
The energy was too much.
His body had not yet recovered from Mira's attack.
---
SOUTHERN DISTRICT
Sinta led hundreds of civilians toward an underground tunnel.
Thick smoke obscured the streets.
An elderly man had fallen behind.
The burning roof of a nearby shop was collapsing toward him.
Without hesitation, Sinta turned back.
She charged through the flames and pulled him clear a split second before the building came crashing down.
BRAAAK!
The man survived.
Sinta coughed up blood.
But she remained standing.
"Keep moving!"
Yet the city was too vast.
There were too many fires.
Too many screams.
Too many people they couldn't reach in time.
In the distance—
a twenty-story building collapsed completely.
The voices of the people trapped inside were cut off all at once.
On the highway—
an evacuation bus exploded after being struck by another meteor.
In the river—
dozens of people were swept away when a bridge gave way.
The team saw it all.
And there was nothing they could do to be everywhere at once.
Bimo stopped after carrying the last child to the safety zone.
He turned toward the distant black smoke.
For the first time—
he had no joke.
"...We're too late."
Dika sat against a concrete barrier.
His shoulder was broken.
His breathing was heavy.
He looked at the civilians who had survived.
Then at the building he had failed to save.
His eyes were empty.
Farhan slammed his fist against the control panel until his hand began to bleed.
"If only the system had been faster..."
Lila placed a hand on his arm.
"That wasn't your fault."
But her own voice trembled.
Because she wasn't sure she believed it either.
Sinta stood in the middle of an ash-covered street.
Her face was smeared with soot.
Her eyes were red.
She watched as stretcher after stretcher passed by.
There were too many.
Arga stared at the city from among the ruins.
Fire was everywhere.
Crying could be heard from every direction.
He gripped the MBG Lunchbox so tightly that his palm began to bleed.
"I have this power..."
His voice cracked.
"...so why is this still happening?"
Kai stood beside him.
For a moment, even he had no answer.
Then the earth began to tremble.
Not an explosion.
Not another meteor.
Something worse.
Farhan looked at a backup screen that had just flickered to life.
His expression crumpled.
"No..."
Lila turned toward him.
"What is it?"
Farhan pointed toward the orbital display.
The cosmic gate was now fully open.
And beyond it—
millions of red points had appeared.
Not hundreds.
Not thousands.
Millions.
Bimo whispered.
"...This is only the first wave?"