Information spread like poison through the veins of the nation.
Emergency radios, news channels, encrypted networks... nothing could stem the tide of panic.
Each word, each image, infected the population a little more deeply.
The overwhelmed authorities had no time for understanding—only for desperate action.
The dungeon was no longer a challenge.
It had become an omen of imminent annihilation.
---
Armored vehicles howled into deserted avenues, skidding across fractured asphalt.
Doors slammed open. Three agents disembarked, their gear humming with unstable magical energy.
At their center, Marcus Williams, the towering chief of operations, advanced with heavy, deliberate steps toward the portal. His boots crushed still-warm rubble with every stride.
— "Report. Now," he growled.
Daniel Lee, a seasoned analyst with a complexion like ash, typed feverishly on his device.
— "This morning, it was an E-rank dungeon... but now..." He swallowed, face draining of color. "S-rank confirmed, Marcus. S-RANK."
Ava Hopkins, an applied magic specialist, approached the portal with trembling caution, scanning device in hand.
One beep... Two...
The scanner burst apart in a shower of violent red sparks.
They stumbled back instinctively. A terrible silence descended.
Marcus paled.
His earpiece crackled to life.
— "CODE RED. GENERAL EVACUATION. Alert neighboring nations. This thing will annihilate everything."
The command lashed the air like a whip.
Behind them, the portal shuddered.
Black cracks veined across its surface, spilling a toxic mist that corroded the very air.
Time itself was collapsing.
And humanity was about to plunge into its first true nightmare.
---
At that same moment.
In a vast office bathed in the glow of a dying sun, a phone vibrated violently.
Leonardo Cain, President of the World Hunters Association, answered.
— "Cain speaking."
A voice roared from the other side.
— "Where is my son?!"
Leonardo clenched his jaw.
— "...Mr. Blackwell. Your son is... inside the dungeon. The S-rank dungeon."
Silence, thick and boiling.
Then an explosion of rage.
— "GODDAMMIT! BRING HIM BACK! Alive and breathing! I don't give a damn about the cost! If anything happens to him, I'll bury your association and everyone in it!"
Leonardo inhaled slowly, crushing his anger under an iron will.
— "Mr. Blackwell... You are the richest man in Europe. But understand this isn't a dungeon anymore. Ten S-rank portals have appeared across the world. This is extinction."
Blackwell spat venom into the phone.
— "I've mobilized armies! Every guild, every hunter, every mercenary! I want the full might of humanity moving!"
Leonardo's brow furrowed, eyes darkening.
— "...All because of that girl, Jinra, isn't it?" he murmured.
The voice snarled back.
— "That cursed brat is the cause of all this!"
Leonardo slammed his fist against his desk, the marble cracking under the blow.
— "Without her, your two children would have died four years ago! She sacrificed everything—her family, her memory—to save them!"
A long silence followed, poisonous and bitter.
Then, cold as death:
— "I know. And I don't care. My son comes first."
Leonardo's lips pressed into a hard line.
— "Very well. But know this—I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for the world."
He hung up without waiting for a reply.
---
Leonardo rose from his chair like a mountain breaking free of the earth.
— "Bring me my weapons. I'm going to the battlefield myself."
The door burst open.
A young woman in a tailored suit—his assistant—clicked her heels sharply against the marble floor.
— "Yes, sir."
As she turned to leave, she hesitated.
— "Sir... May I ask something?"
— "Speak."
She drew a trembling breath.
— "Why... Why do you pay the rent for a shabby apartment belonging to Jinra Ross?"
Leonardo froze.
A shadow passed over him.
— "Because her father was my closest friend," he said, voice low and heavy.
He stared through the window, where storm clouds devoured the horizon.
— "He gave his life to save his children. Only Jinra survived. That rent is not charity. It's my debt to him... though it will never be enough."
A silence, vast and suffocating, fell between them.
Then Leonardo turned and strode from the building.
A black limousine awaited him, its door open like a gaping maw.
A bodyguard stepped forward, offering two colossal axes etched with ancient runes.
Leonardo allowed himself a rare, grim smile.
— "Thank you, kid."
---
Near the portal, the scene was nothing short of apocalyptic.
Tanks.
Fighter jets.
Walls of missiles pointed toward the sky.
And thousands of hunters steeled to die.
Without warning, the portal erupted.
A tide of goblins spilled forth—larger, darker, their eyes gleaming with unnatural intelligence.
These creatures were no longer merely alive.
They had been resurrected.
Their sole mission: protect the Guardian.
Then, from the portal, a lone figure emerged.
Ethan Blackwell.
He staggered forward, his steps slow, mechanical, hollow.
In his arms—
The broken body of Jinra Ross.
Her flesh charred and blackened, her hair scorched away.
Her chest barely lifted in a whisper of breath—more dead than alive.
Leonardo roared:
— "OPEN FIRE! DESTROY THEM!"
Artillery screamed.
Mages unleashed devastating incantations.
But before the assault could land, a hundred men clad in black, wielding short swords engraved with golden insignias, erupted from the shadows.
— "STAND DOWN!"
— "BLACKWELL AGENTS!"
They raised their badges high.
Leonardo's eyes narrowed.
Recognition was instant.
— "Troops, withdraw! Hold your fire!"
The Blackwell Agents formed a wall around Ethan, protecting him with ruthless efficiency.
In a coordinated flash, they obliterated the goblin horde in less than thirty seconds.
The squad leader tapped his earpiece.
— "Mission complete. The young master is secured."
Far away, from behind the tinted windows of a skyscraper, a man sagged into a leather sofa.
He swallowed a handful of pills, exhaling in heavy, ragged relief.
Ethan, cradled by the agents, was rushed to a black armored limousine.
Ten vehicles flanked them, engines roaring, ready to annihilate any obstacle.
Leonardo, watching with growing horror, shouted:
— "AMBULANCE! NOW!"
He had seen it.
Jinra's broken body slipping from Ethan's arms—falling like a discarded, burnt doll.
— "WHAT KIND OF MONSTERS ARE YOU?!" Leonardo roared.
An ambulance skidded onto the scene.
Leonardo seized the nearest medic by the collar.
— "SAVE HER. I don't care what it costs."
— "Understood, sir!" the medic barked back.
Jinra was rushed away, clinging to life by the thinnest of threads.
And that day...
As darkness smothered the Earth, an invisible spark flickered to life.
A spark...
That would one day burn down a world born of ashes and betrayal.