The Author's POV

[Earth]

The blue sky above seemed to shimmer and vibrate. The clouds parted, and then suddenly the sky began to crack, like a fragile pane of glass that was subjected to too much stress.

C... crack―!

The first fracture appeared, jagged and rough-edged, and then another, and another, until the sky was a spiderweb of broken blue glass.

From within the cracks, shapes began to emerge, strange and distorted, like figures from another dimension breaking through into this one.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Figures materialized into the sky, one after another. Their faces were pallid and drawn, their eyes sunken and haunted. They stumbled out of the cracks, their bodies haggard and trembling.

"We're here!"

One of them cried out, a note of relief in his voice.

"We've made it."

Another echoed, sounding more exhausted than triumphant.

After their emergence, more and more figures began to materialize from the fissure in the sky, eventually filling the entirety of the sky with their respective numbers.

The sky above them had stopped cracking, but it remained a deep, unsettling shade of blue, like a bruise on the face of the world.

Swoosh!

As the last of the survivors emerged from the portal, they took stock of their surroundings.

They were standing on top of what appeared to be a city, albeit one with peculiar building styles. The buildings were long and rectangular in shape, and the majority of their surfaces were covered in glass.

Other than that, it was eerily silent.

There were no sounds of life or movement, no signs of civilization or activity.

"Are we in the right place?"

"This is Earth?"

The survivors gathered together, their faces etched with fatigue and anxiety.

They were well aware that they had cheated death by a razor's edge and that it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them; at the moment, they were merely attempting to cling onto their last hope with the remaining forces on earth.

Soon...

Soon, the demons were going to come, and only one ending crossed their minds.

The survivors could feel it in their bones—a deep, primal fear that made their hearts race and their palms sweat.

"What's going on here? Where are all the humans?"

Their eyes swept the area around them, and as they extended their mana in an effort to detect the presence of

and shocked, one of the elven elders voiced out their

is it

I've made it

voice echoed, and everyone turned their heads to see a human with short

and he appeared not

"Who are you?"

voice filled with caution. She was

question

overbearing, but with a certain authority that made it difficult for

elven elder stepped

He seemed rather amicable.

for the inconvenience. We have heard that you humans have signed an alliance with our races,

at them made it seem as though he was seeing right through them. He didn't

see, so you're

with no sincerity in

there was, but his expression and voice were rather monotone. It was hard to

The demons are coming. Where

glared at the human who

had just escaped from the demon's clutches, and yet, the moment they arrived on Earth, they found out that there was no

couldn't allow

where

"Or what?"

behind his ear, and the orc's entire body turned stiff. He robotically turned his

"How?"

He stammered.

wasn't the only one shocked. The other members of the three races were also in disbelief. No one was able

he didn't say anything. Even so, for the orc, that one

a bunch

words made the air tense as everyone looked at him with

think I don't know you're not reinforcements?

one of his words

"Know your place."

powerfully rang in the

human no longer paid them any attention and turned his head away

you seriously think you managed to escape because of your

the attention toward

"What do you mean?"

of the dwarven delegates

lot of our forces fell in order to let us

"Heh."

as pity. The dwarf furrowed

went

of them could utter a sound, the human

on

tense silence. The human shook his head, his eyes trained upwards as if

didn't escape because of your