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?"

mana in an effort to detect the presence of any form of life, they were surprised to discover that there

of the elven elders voiced

it

because I've made it like

and everyone turned their heads to see a human with short black

calm and he appeared not far from where

"Who are you?"

dwarven representatives asked, her voice filled with caution. She was a

be a question

humble nor overbearing, but with a

elven elder stepped

He seemed rather amicable.

apologize for the inconvenience. We have heard that you humans have signed an alliance with our races, and we've come

much, the way he looked at them made it seem as though he was seeing right through them. He didn't say anything after that and merely nodded his

see, so you're

said with no sincerity in

was, but his expression and voice were rather monotone. It was hard to get a good

a rush for time. The demons are

orc suddenly opened his mouth and glared at the human who was standing off in the

just escaped from the demon's clutches, and yet, the moment they arrived on Earth, they found out that there was no one and that they were being looked down upon by a

pride couldn't allow

tell us where the

"Or what?"

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

"How?"

He stammered.

the only one shocked. The other members of the three races were also in disbelief. No one was able to catch a glimpse of how

hand and placed it on the orc's shoulder. His cold gaze fell on him, and for a short moment, he didn't say anything. Even so, for the orc, that one short moment felt like an eternity, and his entire

a

air tense as everyone looked at him

don't know you're not reinforcements? Look at yourselves. Do you look

but each one of

"Know your place."

and those three words powerfully rang in the minds of the three races that

any attention and turned his head away from them to stare at the

you managed to escape because of your

the attention toward him once

"What do you mean?"

the dwarven

to escape from the demons. In fact, a lot of our forces fell in order to let us escape. If

"Heh."

delegate's, his gaze heavy with what could only be described as pity. The dwarf furrowed his brows in response, sensing the disdain that was

same went for

could utter a sound,

wrong on

through the tense silence. The human shook his

didn't escape because