Then—
The first creature stepped out of the portal.
At first glance, it resembled a human.
Only at first glance.
Its body was pale and swollen, its skin stretched tightly over a grotesquely enlarged torso. The abdomen bulged outward in a disturbing mass of flesh, pulsing faintly as if something inside it was alive.
Its limbs were long and crooked, joints bending wrong as it dragged itself forward with twitching, animal-like movements.
And its face—
Its face was the worst part.
The creature possessed a mouth, but there were no lips.
Only exposed rows of uneven teeth stretching across its face, permanently bared in a grotesque grin. Saliva dripped between the teeth as the thing tilted its head unnaturally.
Two round, pale eyes stared ahead with a hollow, predatory awareness.
Then another one crawled out of the portal.
And another.
And another.
Soon the portals began pouring them out endlessly.
Like ants flooding out of a broken anthill.
Dozens of them spilled into the desert of the Reality Marble, their distorted bodies crawling and sprinting across the sand with disturbing speed.
Some ran on four limbs like animals.
Others stumbled forward upright before collapsing into frantic crawling.
Their movements were erratic.
Unnatural.
The sound of their steps echoed across the battlefield—wet, uneven impacts like meat slamming against stone.
Compared to these creatures—
The grotesque abomination summoned earlier by Caster suddenly seemed almost cute.
For the first time since the Reality Marble had been deployed, Iskandar fell completely silent.
The King of Conquerors had faced monsters, spirits, and demonic beasts on countless battlefields.
But this—
This was something else entirely.
"…What…"
Beside him, Waver Velvet felt the blood drain from his face.
"…Those… things…"
His voice trembled as he stared at the swarm pouring from the portals.
His mind rejected what his eyes were seeing.
Every instinct in his body screamed the same thing:
'That should not exist.'
It wasn't just fear.
It felt like his sanity itself was slipping the longer he looked at them.
Behind them, Irisviel von Einzbern covered her mouth.
"…What are those creatures…?"
Even Saber tightened her grip on her sword.
Artoria Pendragon had faced dragons, giants, and demonic beasts in her life.
Yet the presence of these creatures felt fundamentally wrong.
Not magical.
Not demonic.
Something that simply should not belong to the world.
"…They feel… unnatural."
Nearby, Aesc stood frozen.
Her eyes widened slowly.
The last fragile piece of hope inside her mind shattered instantly.
She recognized them.
Not from rumors.
Not from imagination.
From the countless reports she had read inside Ren's library.
Containment logs.
Termination attempts.
Behavioral studies.
And the horrifying classification printed at the top of those files.
SCP-3199 - Human Refuted (Keter-Class).
Her fingers trembled slightly.
"…It's real…"
All those records she had read.
All those impossible anomalies.
They were never exaggerations.
They were truth.
For the first time since arriving here, Aesc felt genuine dread crawl through her chest.
Because if even one of those files had been real—
Then the Foundation's warnings about anomalies capable of destroying humanity…
Might also be real.
Meanwhile, Sakura Aion blinked in confusion.
Held gently in the arms of Aesc, she tried to look toward the distant battlefield.
But from this far away, she could only see vague shapes moving across the desert.
She tugged lightly at Aesc's sleeve.
"O-Onee-san…?"
"What's happening over there?"
Aesc didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes remained fixed on the horrifying swarm flooding the battlefield, her expression tense.
The moment the creatures poured from the portals—
They stopped.
Dozens of pale heads tilted at the same time.
Their lipless mouths slowly widened.
Because they had noticed something.
Life.
Thousands of living beings stood across the desert.
The army of Iskandar.
For a brief second the battlefield went silent.
Then—
The creatures began to tremble.
Low, wet noises escaped their throats.
A grotesque mixture of shrieks and excited choking sounds.
They had found prey.
And the entire swarm charged.
Hundreds, Thousands of SCP-3199 burst forward like rabid beasts, their long limbs slamming into the sand as they sprinted across the desert with terrifying speed.
The sound of their movement was chaotic.
Uneven.
Violent.
Like a pack of starving predators finally unleashed.
Watching the incoming tide of horrors, Rider's eyes narrowed.
But instead of retreating—
The King of Conquerors raised his sword.
"Soldiers!"
His voice thundered across the desert.
"Stand firm!"
Thousands of warriors raised their shields and spears in response.
"For the King!"
Their voices roared in unison.
But behind Rider—
Waver Velvet had already dropped to his knees.
His entire body trembled as he watched the monstrous swarm rushing toward them.
"…What… are those things…"
The first wave arrived.
And the battlefield turned into a nightmare.
Several SCP-3199 suddenly leapt.
Far higher than any creature of their size should be capable of.
Their swollen bodies arced through the air like grotesque missiles.
Then they crashed into the front line of Rider's army.
The impact was catastrophic.
Soldiers were flattened instantly beneath their massive weight.
Armor crumpled.
Bones shattered.
Bodies turned into meat paste beneath the creatures' swollen abdomens.
But the monsters didn't stop.
Even as the soldiers beneath them were already crushed beyond recognition—
The SCP-3199 kept stomping.
Over.
And over.
And over.
Wet cracking sounds echoed across the battlefield as they pounded the ground in frenzied excitement.
Some of the creatures dropped to all fours and began biting.
Their lipless mouths tore into arms and limbs, ripping pieces from the fallen warriors like animals devouring prey.
The heroic army of the King of Conquerors was being torn apart by creatures that fought like rabid beasts.
For the first time—
Rider's grin vanished.
"…You monsters."
Then his expression twisted.
Not with fear.
But with fury.
Lightning exploded around him as he leapt onto his chariot.
"Very well!"
The divine bulls roared as the chariot surged forward like a thunderbolt.
"If you wish for slaughter—"
"Then face a king on the battlefield!"
The Gordius Wheel smashed into the swarm.
Lightning erupted as Rider's chariot tore through several SCP-3199, sending their grotesque bodies flying across the desert.
Some were crushed beneath the divine bulls.
Others were torn apart by the chariot's thunderous charge.
But the chaos didn't stop.
Because more creatures continued crawling from the portals.
More.
And more.
And more.
Like an endless plague spilling into the world.
The desert of the Reality Marble was becoming a slaughterhouse.
And the nightmare had only just begun.
The desert of the Reality Marble had become a battlefield unlike any Rider's army had ever seen.
Spears pierced pale flesh.
Swords cleaved twisted limbs.
Warriors shouted and charged in formation, shields locked together as they fought to hold the line.
But the SCP-3199 did not fight like soldiers.
They fought like starving animals.
They threw themselves into the ranks without fear.
Some were skewered by spears yet continued crawling forward, biting at the legs of the soldiers who impaled them.
Others leapt directly into tight formations, their massive bodies crushing shields and men alike beneath their swollen weight.
The sand of the desert had long since turned dark.
Chunks of broken armor littered the battlefield.
Everywhere there were the sounds of steel clashing with bone, and the sickening wet impact of bodies being torn apart.
Lightning flashed again as the chariot of Iskandar carved through another swarm.
The Gordius Wheel smashed through the creatures like a thunderbolt, hurling them aside as the divine bulls trampled anything that stood in their path.
"FORWARD!"
Rider's voice roared across the battlefield.
"Show them the pride of Macedon!"
His soldiers answered with a thunderous battle cry.
Even as their numbers thinned, the army of the King of Conquerors continued to fight with ferocious determination.
Behind Rider, Waver Velvet had long since abandoned any hope of maintaining composure.
His hands trembled violently as he watched the endless tide of monsters.
"R-Rider…!"
Another wave of SCP-3199 burst from the portals.
Waver's eyes widened in horror.
Without hesitation, he slammed his hand down.
The Command Spells on his hand glowed bright red.
"By my Command Seal—!"
"Rider! Crush them!"
The magical energy surged through the contract between Master and Servant.
Rider's chariot exploded forward with renewed force.
Hours seemed to pass within the endless desert.
Another Command Spell burned away from Waver's hand during the chaos.
The army fought.
And fought.
And fought.
The creatures kept coming.
But slowly—
The tide began to change.
The battlefield was now covered in the broken remains of SCP-3199.
Thousands of the pale monstrosities lay scattered across the desert sands.
The last surviving soldiers of Rider's army pushed forward with desperate fury.
And at last—
The portals stopped.
Far across the battlefield, Ren casually snapped his fingers.
One by one, the portals began to close.
The endless swarm finally ceased.
Inside his Containment Zone, the remaining SCP-3199 had nearly run out.
Leaving any more would risk losing the entire population.
So the portals vanished.
Silence slowly returned to the desert.
The Reality Marble battlefield looked like a graveyard.
Where once thousands of warriors had stood, fewer than a hundred remained.
Broken shields and shattered weapons were scattered across the sand.
The survivors stood breathing heavily, their armor stained from hours of battle.
At the center of the field, Rider stepped down from his chariot.
His massive frame rose and fell with exhaustion.
Even for a Servant, that battle had pushed him to his limits.
Beside him, Waver collapsed onto the sand.
Two of the glowing Command Spells on his hand had already disappeared.
He looked like he might faint at any moment.
Rider wiped blood from his beard and turned toward Ren.
"So."
His voice was hoarse but steady.
"Care to explain what those things were?"
Across the battlefield, Ren simply smiled.
"…It's not over yet."
The King of Conquerors narrowed his eyes immediately.
His instincts screamed again.
Something was wrong.
Then Ren slowly raised his hand and pointed upward.
Toward the blazing sun hanging in the sky of the Reality Marble.
Rider frowned.
Waver followed his gaze upward in confusion.
"…What?"
(end of the chapter)
===================
[SCP File] [SCP-3199 Human Refuted (Object Class: Keter)
[SCP-3199 denotes a species of sapient Category-5 biological entities of currently indeterminable origin, though tissue samples indicate the presence of Silkie chicken1, chimpanzee, stoat, mussel, adder, and human DNA. They are typically hairless, stained with a thin layer of an albumen-like excretion, and stand at an average of 2.9 meters. Its weight averages 780 kg for a matured instance, and 360 kg for a hatchling. Autopsy has determined that the cervical vertebrae of a mature SCP-3199 instance are composed of cartilage, rather than bone. This enables the neck and throat to twist and dislocate to around 340° in either direction, aiding their unusual reproductive cycle.]
[Author's Note: The reason SCP-3199 is classified as Keter is because instances can appear almost anywhere. Even if the Foundation successfully captures and contains them, new ones may still spawn unpredictably across Earth, almost like monsters spawning in a game.]