"SPY X-1 reporting from the scene, tens of thousands of monsters are gathering and heading toward PETERUMMAN's northern wall, S+ level danger. Emergency protocols must be executed immediately, stand—"
No signal.
SPY X-1 has been destroyed.
The monitor screen in the command center flashed a bright crimson, casting a bloody glare across the faces of the rigid, frozen officers.
"Announce it to all Sectors, deploy the majority of forces to defend the northern fortress, full alert!" Commander Pantas commanded, his voice booming through the chilling silence of the command room. "Deploy fifty heavy-class fighter jets right now!"
"Ready, Commander!" cried Lieutenant Johan, the communications operator, with a trembling voice. His fingers danced wildly across the control console as it began emitting high-pitched warning alarms.
Commander Pantas froze once again in front of the main tactical screen. Cold sweat poured down his temples, chilling instantly under the air conditioning breeze that suddenly felt devoid of oxygen. His breathing raced, chasing the seconds of death creeping at the city's doorstep. He knew precisely what this full alert meant—not merely deploying troops, but risking the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines against a wave of pure extinction.
In a different place, the wailing of emergency sirens broke the silence across every sector headquarters. Short messages from the central command struck the desks of PETERUMMAN's highest leaders without warning.
In Sector 02, amid the dark, gunpowder-scented corridors of the Vermilion Unit headquarters, General Valky narrowed her eyes at the red-flashing holographic screen. The corners of her lips lifted into a cold, anticipatory smirk.
"Ready, old man," she murmured softly, her fingers instinctively brushing against the tactical dagger at her waist, calling her assassin squad to move.
PETERUMMAN's night sky was no longer dark; it blazed brightly with the exhaust fire of jet engines and tactical searchlights. Fifty heavy-class fighter jets—the elite "Sky-Raptor Squadron"—shattered the nocturnal silence, roaring fiercely through the snowstorm, ready to bombard the ocean of tens of thousands of monsters that had just flattened the northern gate to pieces.
"Report, Sky-Raptor Squadron ready for combat! Awaiting orders to initiate the attack!" shouted the squadron leader, Captain Rizman, over the tactical comms channel.
"Buy as much time as possible before Sector 05 finishes evacuating the citizens!" Lieutenant Johan replied with an urgent tone.
Beneath the blazing sky, the northern gate had transformed into a sea of blood and shattered steel. Frontline armed forces screamed hysterically, side by side shooting at the expressionless monster wave with long-barreled rifles and hand-held cannons that endlessly vomited armor-piercing rounds. Artillery detonations shook the earth.
At strategic points along the wall ruins, the finest snipers were deployed. Their scopes reflected the red glow of the raging fires, pulling triggers to blow apart the heads of the foremost monsters attempting to breach humanity's final line of defense.
Wiu... Wiu...
Emergency alarms wailed deafeningly throughout the Northern District. Civilian residents scattered in overwhelming panic, as though today truly marked the end of human civilization.
"Be careful, don't get left behind! Follow the designated evacuation routes!" shouted fully uniformed security officers, guiding the surging crowd amidst the snowstorm.
"Captain, nearly 80 percent of the residents have been evacuated!" yelled a soldier via radio comms, his breath stung by the freezing air.
"Do not let a single one remain, or Sector 05 will bear the shame before the council!" asserted Captain Arkan, Sector 05's field leader, glaring sharply at the evacuation team as they began to struggle.
However, time was not on their side.
The Ground Battlefield: The Northern Gate
On the front lines, hell broke loose on a scale humanity had never witnessed. Thousands of deep-green scaled monsters with wide-open jaws lunged at the final defense line.
"Hold them back! Do not let them cross the trench line!" snapped Captain Arman, an infantry platoon commander from Sector 01.
Boom! Bang! Trrr-tat-tat-tat!
Armed forces desperately spewed hot lead from their long rifles and hand cannons. Artillery blasts shook the earth, tearing monster bodies to shreds. Snipers atop the collapsed towers pulled their triggers incessantly, ensuring every bullet penetrated the primordial beasts' weak spots.
Yet, their numbers were like an endless ocean. Fresh blood drenched the white snow, turning the defense line into a pitch-red graveyard.
"Captain! Our defense is breached! Their numbers are too man—" Bham! Before the soldier could finish his sentence, a massive monster lunged at his position, crushing the defensive steel in a single swing of its claws. The ground defense line collapsed within seconds. Pure terror engulfed the retreating soldiers.
The Aerial Battlefield: The Northern Sky
Above the burning sky, fifty heavy fighter jets of the Sky-Raptor Squadron soared in attack formation. Elite pilots glared down at the sea of monsters below, ready to annihilate the remnants of the evacuation.
"Command, this is Squadron Leader. The ground sector is critical! We are ready to bombard the red coordinates right now!" Captain Rizman shouted over the radio link.
"Wait! There is still an evacuation team in the green zone south of the gate! Do not release missiles—"
Before that prohibitory order could finish, the night sky above them suddenly rumbled violently. The air temperature spiked scorching hot, melting the ice crystals on the aircraft wings in an instant.
"Captain! There is a massive anomaly approaching the air radar! Those objects are flying right at us!" yelled the co-pilot in a hysterical voice.
From behind the swirling black fogstorm, colossal silhouettes flapped wings spanning the width of skyscrapers. Three obsidian-scaled primordial dragons with glowing purple eyes broke through the skies. Their roars rattled the cockpit panels, causing guidance instruments to buzz loudly. Ignisvar, the Bringer of Calamity, had arrived.
"Damn it! Those dragons are shielding the monster horde below!"
"Scatter! Scatter! Avoid their fire breath!"
Fyuuush!
A concentrated, deep blue flame breath surged from the first dragon's maw, swallowing two fighter jets on the left flank whole in a second. A massive explosion bloomed in mid-air, raining the earth with blazing metal fragments.
The battle now split into two absolute horrors: on land, soldiers fought desperately to hold back the merciless slaughter wave, while in the air, Sky-Raptor pilots were trapped in a life-or-death duel against bloodthirsty primordial sky rulers.