It wasn’t long after the unearthly sounds had erupted from the newly opened hole of Alsium Two’s underground cliff walls that gunfire and explosions erupted far off in the distance from it.

  Aster shuddered at the sounds. A shiver went up his spine. Whatever this was, it was bad. His senses were screaming at him that things were about to turn disastrous. Flashes went through his mind. Of darkness. Horrible creatures. And great and terrible death.

  As if a beehive had been disturbed, the military forces of SETI sprang into action. Various mobile frames sortied from the Rakaila itself, from the various scattered bases, and out of Alsium Two’s command center farther out in the distance. Smaller units of soldiers in lighter vehicles scrambled towards the sounds of battle. And long unused static defenses suddenly emerged from their hidden locations all along the underground arcology’s surfaces.

  Alarms blared throughout the underground arcology as other soldiers ran to and fro, trying to soothe the panicked citysfolk of Tigata. Worried adults calmed their scared children, even as worries and doubts stirred within themselves as well.

  “Move to the designated shelters!” A voice said over the others. “Do not panic! Move in an orderly fashion and proceed to the nearest shelter!”

  With the alarms came open hatches that raised themselves up from the ground, leading to further below to hardened and armored shelters in case of emergencies. The soldiers had reacted with speed and precision, as expected of the SETI’s unit, quickly moving great quantities of people down below in mere minutes.

  Aster glanced at Selenia, who seemed paralyzed. It seemed she had felt the same sense of worry he had.

  It wasn’t unusual for the Lethea Labyrinth to have its own dangers from its days of yore, in past centuries and millennia, from past ages. But the Gaia Sphere Federation had long since dealt with those issues, one way or another, as the denizens of the Lethea Labyrinth had organized into the Despar Dominion either by coming into an accord with such creatures, neutralizing them with force, or simply keeping a watchful eye on them.

  The Lethea Labyrinth was massive, and even the Despar Dominion failed to control certain sections of it further underground, deep within its depths. Especially in the wake of the End War, when fighting had raged within the Lethea Labyrinth itself, which had destroyed and ruined great sections of it that still lay unreclaimed from the days of all-out war with the Settlement Front Alliance.

  The massive gaping hole hundreds of meters wide and tall that had been blown out was the path that had led directly from Alsium One, the sibling district of Alsium Two that had been destroyed during the End War. It shouldn’t have been surprising for some old monsters to have taken residence in the abandoned district.

  But this wasn’t merely just the sounds of any common monster.

  A flash went through him at that moment as his eyes widened in realization.

  It was…

  A quake in the ground caught everyone’s attention as the clamor around him went still. With each second, it grew heavier. And it was only with the quieting of the commotion that he realized that the gunfire and explosions farther off in the distance had gone quiet.

  A trembling hand on his arm caught Aster’s attention as he looked back at Selenia to realize that she was deathly pale, as if they needed to get away from where they were right now.

  The quakes stopped.

  Aster turned his head towards the hole in Alsium Two’s massive, sheer cliff walls where the hole lay. A massive hand held onto the side of the entrance, and a nightmarish creature’s head popped right out of it and roared. A seemingly endless horde of mind-numbing monsters surged out of it after, filling the skies and the ground in a black tide so thick that it looked like one great tidal wave. Their roars, shrieks, and screams deafened the air.

  Aster’s mouth gaped.

  It was the Starblight! That which came out of the void between stars in the wake of the End War and the Astral Nova when time itself had been broken. That which had infected Gaia and reality itself. Something beyond the reason of the world.

  There was no rhyme or reason to them. They were of every shape and form, as out of a strange, twisted nightmare—some had far too many eyes that made no sense, others too many mouths and maws filled with razor-sharp teeth, a bizarre assortment of limbs, all parts of their bodies. And above all, they all seemed just every so slightly out of sync with reality, as if they were something that wasn’t meant to be in the physical world to begin with.

  Immediately, panic reasserted itself, quickly forming into chaos as civilians surged forward, hurrying to some semblance of safety as soldiers moved forward, firing with whatever weapons they had at the creatures of every bizarre shape and form, as if out of some strange nightmare.

  In response, a massive wave of Proto Particle beams, kinetic projectiles, and missiles from the Rakaila, Alsium Two’s defences, and the various scattered mobile frames put up a wall of protective coverfire. As great as it was, it did little to push back the tide.

  Many of the smaller creatures slipped past and quickly made their way to them as the soldiers around them sprang into action, organizing into makeshift units to put themselves in harm's way to protect the civilians. The soldiers felled a great many of the monsters with small arms and rocket fire, but quickly had to engage in a desperate melee, forming makeshift short-range blades and polearms with blue Arcana energy, as the endless tide surged over them.

  Aster pushed in front of Selenia as he formed a blue Arcana blade in his own hand, the blueish energy manifesting itself into a blade in one hand as he stabbed and hacked at several of the smaller creatures that had come their way. They fell to the ground, black ichor oozing from their bodies, as they slowly vanished in motes of darkness.

  But even despite the overwhelming tide, the soldiers of SETI weren’t about to be outdone. Many of its soldiers were End War veterans, battle-hardened soldiers from total war against the Settlement Front Alliance. Even against such mind-numbing monsters, they stood their ground as reinforcements poured in—infantry, armor, and mobile frames.

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  The soldiers of SETI covered one another in formation, using whatever they could around the city to throw together makeshift barricades that they defended with the civilians taking shelter within them or the buildings. They fired upward into the skies as enemies swooped down—some soldiers even leaping upward to tackle them head-on with their formed Arcana melee weapons.

  The city square that Aster and Selenia found themselves in had quickly become a nexus of activity as more soldiers and civilians poured into it.

  Aster glanced at Selenia, who looked disturbed and petrified of the Starblight. As much as he wanted to move forward and help defend the city, she was his responsibility first and foremost. He had to get her to safety. He took his hand and quickly sped them both off through the crowds towards one of the shelter’s hatches that had raised from the ground.

  But with a quick flash of red warning lights that make everyone around scramble away, the shelter hatches snapped shut in mere seconds.

  “Idiots! Who initiated the emergency closures!?” One of the soldiers yelled. They wore higher-ranking ensignia than the others.

  “Colonel Varsen! It was an automatic shut off!” Another soldier replied.

  The Colonel cursed, then shouted to all the nearby soldiers. “Get the remaining civilians within the buildings and prepare for evac.”

  Aster and Selenia caught the Colonel’s eyes as the soldiers around him escorted the remaining civilians towards the nearby structures whose windows and entrances were in the process of being barricaded.

  “You two! Varsen said as he approached. “Your Aster and the Moon Princess right?”

  “I am sir!” Aster replied as Selenia nodded by his side.

  “You two are staying by me,” Varsen said as another group of soldiers fell behind him. He motioned for them to follow him. The gruff human man shook his head, muttering under his breath. “Rakaila is going to kill me if something happens to both of you otherwise.”

  The situation had stabilized somewhat as reinforcements continued to pour in, as military units continued to mobilize across Alsium Two from both the Rakaila itself, Alsium’s Two command center, far off within the sheer cliff wall to the rear, and from across Alsium Two’s surface. More soldiers poured in behind their small group as armored personnel carriers dropped off soldiers while providing additional firepower, and tanks thundered forward to add heavy caliber shells to the weight of fire.

  The newly arriving soldiers had far heavier gear than their lightly armed and armored counterparts—powered exoskeletons with armor plates, carrying higher caliber weaponry, missiles, rockets, minaturized particle rifles, and all sorts of various equipment on them.

  In the skies above, fast-moving, angular, and sleek transport shuttles were streaming towards Tigata from the warship Rakaila and Alsium Two’s command center. The mobile frames that had already sortied provided escort and made a blocking formation to create a corridor for the shuttles against the flying horrors—firing shoulder-mounted rockets, particle and kinetic rifles, and even engaging with particle sabers in close combat with some of the larger monsters.

  “We’re not going to shelter here sir?” Aster asked as both he and Selenia moved alongside the SETI officer. Aster glanced at Selenia, who was quietly terrified as her head swiveled back and forth, making sure that nothing was about to leap out from her blind spots.

  “No chances,” Colonel Varsen said as they reached a good enough observation position to see where the primary combat was taking place away towards the hole that had been blown in Alsium Two’s cliff wall. “You’re both going on the first shuttle out of here and to the Rakaila as soon as possible. It’s the safest place to be.”

  Aster gulped as the enormity of the battle grew by the second. Already, hundreds of mobile frames were engaged in the skies and on the ground, and more were continuing to stream into the fight from behind from the warship Rakaila itself and from Alsium Two’s command center. Many light and heavy armor vehicles added the weight of their firepower to the mix alongside the various defensive turrets that had sprung up from all over Alsium Two.

  The firepower that was being put out was growing in intensity by the second. Though the mass of monsters was growing. For now, they weren’t winning, but they weren’t losing either. Endless streams of dark red Proto Particle beams streaked across it, together with the yellow and white light of missiles, and the blue of hypervelocity kinetic projectile fire.

  The warship Rakaila itself, massive as it was, slowly made its way towards Tigata city, fire pouring from every gun emplacement, Proto Particle cannon, and missile tube it had. It was a comforting sight. It shredded anything and everything that it could. As a wave of the larger ground creatures slipped past the mobile frames engaged in combat, the Rakaila blasted a barrage of weapons fire downward at them that quickly blew and vaporized them apart, smashing both the monsters and the terrain to pieces.

  Aster felt a small sense of relief. The warship Rakaila was here. It was a comforting presence. With the sheer firepower at its disposal, even the Starblight was something that could be taken care of. And there were few places on Gaia as well protected as within the depths of its heavy, meters-thick armor plating and Proto Particle shielding.

  As the first shuttles from the Rakaila began touching down, Colonel Varsen made a motion to his soldiers in the nearby buildings. “First group of civilians to the shuttles!”

  An ear-splitting roar caught the attention of everyone. They all turned their heads towards its source in the distance. A massive explosion that shook the earth made them stumble and nearly fall. The massive creature that had first shown itself had seemingly blown the hole open even further—its sheer height and size meant that it hadn’t been large enough. Even though the hole itself had been enlarged, it still had to bend down in order to get through.

  It was only now as it stood to its full height, that the sheer size of the creature made itself known. It was hundreds of meters tall. Its head, a gaping maw full of teeth and wicked tendrils, opened wide as it continued to roar in anger and hate. The mobile frames near it looked like toys beside it.

  Firepower quickly concentrated on it, but it was all ineffective. Missiles exploded on it to no effect. Heavy hypervelocity shells seemed to be absorbed by it. And the only thing that seemed to do anything was the dark red Proto Particle beam barrage sent its way. Several brave mobile frame pilots charged in with their particle sabers but were sliced apart in a mere blink of an eye by razor-sharp tendrils that had formed from the massive hulking monster, dying in bright explosions.

  In another moment, several dozen more mobile frames that continued to pour weapons fire around it were near instantly sliced apart by a veritable forest of razor-sharp tendrils that sprouted from it, creating a cascade of explosions around the creature.

  The Rakaila itself had not wasted any time and concentrated the weight of its Proto Particle fire towards the creature's head.

  The monster roared at the Rakaila, opening its maw as wide as it could, as dark energy gathered in a shimmering and spiky ball of energy. In mere moments, the energy seemed to reach criticality as a massive dark beam shot from the creature, smashing right into the Rakaila, stopped by its Proto Particle shielding and its armor for but mere seconds until it punched through and exploded one side of the warship.

  The Rakaila continued to fire defiantly as it sank and crashed to the ground.

  A heavy weight dropped within his stomach.

  The Rakaila had been sunk!?

  He glanced by his side at Selenia, who mirrored his own look of dread. And glanced towards Colonel Varsen and the soldiers around. Dread was upon their faces, too, even though the Colonel himself tried to hide it.

  Things had gone from bad to worse.

  Aster had a feeling that things were about to get far worse. Though from the looks that the Colonel and the other soldiers had, he was pretty sure they were thinking the same thing, too.