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?"

them, and as they extended their mana in an effort

of the elven elders voiced

is it

I've made

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

and he appeared not far

"Who are you?"

her voice filled with caution. She was a short

be a question I'm

neither humble nor overbearing, but with a certain authority that made

elven elder stepped

He seemed rather amicable.

heard that you humans have signed an alliance with

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

so you're

with no sincerity in his

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

The demons are coming. Where

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

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

couldn't allow

either tell us where the other humans

"Or what?"

turned his head,

"How?"

He stammered.

in disbelief. No one was able to catch a

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

unruly for a bunch

the air tense as everyone

not reinforcements? Look at yourselves. Do you

change, but each one of his words struck the hearts of

"Know your place."

powerfully rang in the minds

and turned his head

think you managed to escape because

asked, gathering the attention toward

"What do you mean?"

the

to let us escape. If there's one thing I'm sure about, it's that our escape was not

"Heh."

described as pity. The dwarf furrowed his

went for the

could utter

on every

cutting through the tense silence. The human shook his head,

escape because of your own