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?"

said. Their eyes swept the area around them, and as they extended their mana in an effort to detect the presence of any form of life, they were surprised to discover that

the elven elders voiced out

is it

because I've made it

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

and he appeared

"Who are you?"

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

question I'm supposed

but with a certain authority that made it

elder stepped

He seemed rather amicable.

inconvenience. We have heard that you humans have signed an alliance

brow raised, and although his expression didn't change much, the way he looked at them made it seem as though he

so

with no sincerity in his

monotone. It was

a rush for time. The demons are coming. Where

suddenly opened his mouth and glared at the human who was

yet, the moment they arrived on Earth, they found out that there was no one and that they were being looked down upon by

pride couldn't

up, human. You either tell us where the other humans and members

"Or what?"

soft voice whispered behind his ear, and the orc's entire body turned stiff. He robotically turned his head, and his heart dropped at the sight of the human that had appeared without him

"How?"

He stammered.

the three races were also in disbelief. No one was able to catch

short moment, he didn't say anything. Even so, for the orc, that one short moment felt like an eternity, and his entire

unruly for a bunch of

as everyone looked at him with distorted

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

one of his

"Know your place."

rang in the

no longer paid them any attention and turned his head away from them to stare

you seriously think you managed to

asked, gathering the attention

"What do you mean?"

the dwarven

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

"Heh."

as pity. The dwarf furrowed

went for the

could utter a sound,

wrong on

human shook his head, his eyes

escape because