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 any form

of the elven elders

is it

made it

their heads to see a human with short black

and he appeared not far

"Who are you?"

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

that be a question I'm supposed

nor overbearing, but with a certain authority that made it

elven elder

He seemed rather amicable.

heard that you humans have signed an alliance with our races, and we've

expression didn't change 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

see, so

with no sincerity

monotone.

a rush for time. The demons are

at the human

found out that there was no one and that they were being looked down upon

pride couldn't

human. You either tell us where the other

"Or what?"

ear, and the orc's entire body turned stiff. He robotically turned his head, and his heart dropped at the sight

"How?"

He stammered.

shocked. The other members of the three races were also in disbelief.

moment, he didn't say anything. Even so, for the

unruly for a bunch

tense as everyone looked at

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

change, but each one of

"Know your place."

said, and those three words powerfully rang in the minds of the three

and turned his head away from

think you managed to escape because of

the attention toward him

"What do you mean?"

of the dwarven

a lot of our forces fell in order to let us escape. If there's one thing I'm sure about, it's that our escape

"Heh."

with the dwarven delegate's, his gaze heavy with what could only be described as pity. The dwarf furrowed his

same went for

of them could utter a sound,

wrong on every

shook

escape because of