CHAPTER 1130: A FIGURE

Adrien raised his hand, signaling everyone in the room to quiet down as the static-filled voice came through the comms.

"Captain, it’s... hard to describe. You’ll want to see this for yourself."

The sound of distortion and heavy wind nearly drowned out the soldier’s voice. Adrien exchanged a tense glance with Billy before both of them hurried across the corridor toward the surveillance room.

The metallic hum of generators filled the hall as they stepped inside. The air smelled faintly of ozone and rainwater leaking through the ventilation shafts.

Jessica stood by the central console with the other staff. Her hands flew over the controls while several operators tried to stabilize the flickering feeds from the external drones.

Private Nolan-the soldier who had called Adrien-said with a shaky and uncertain voice. "Sir, something’s happening out there in that storm. You need to see this."

"Put it on the main display," Adrien ordered.

The largest monitor at the center of the room flared to life, showing a drone’s live feed through the storm.

The image wavered, static crawling across the screen. But between the bursts of interference the sight made the entire room fall silent.

The clouds outside had split apart like a wound. Through the rift, blue and white light pulsed rhythmically, as if the sky itself was breathing.

The surrounding clouds twisted unnaturally. They spiraling inward instead of outward, feeding the expanding vortex.

Billy leaned forward, resting one hand on the table.

"That’s not a normal cloud is it?" he with grimace. "That looks like a damn portal."

The others in the room who were not familiar with Magical phenomenon become tensed immediately.

Adrien’s jaw tightened. "Jessica, patch me through to command. I want a full analysis on that anomaly."

"Already done, captain. Satellite readings confirm massive electromagnetic distortion paired with strange energy signatures." Jessica’s voice was quick, her tone edged with alarm.

"So it’s linked to the sudden Magic awakening in this area a few hours ago," Adrien said grimly. "Tell General Lennard to accelerate the deployment of the reinforcement. We might not have much time before that thing expands, and something comes out."

The screens flickered again. A low hum, deeper than thunder, reverberated through the speakers and the walls themselves. Every person in the room froze as the sound grew stronger. It was a low vibration that made the floor tremble under their boots.

Billy frowned. "That sound again... it’s the same one from a few hours ago."

Adrien nodded slightly. "Yeah. But this time it’s louder."

Then the entire surveillance feed erupted in blinding white light. The operators flinched back as alarms blared through the facility.

A column of blue and white energy shot skyward from the heart of the storm, splitting the clouds clean apart. For a moment the rain outside stopped midair before crashing back down in torrents that shook the roof.

Jessica shouted over the noise, "The readings are off the charts! Whatever’s in there it’s crossing through!"

As the glare dimmed, the camera auto-focused again, revealing a horrifying sight. A silhouette standing at the center of the blue and white vortex. Even through the distortion that thing was visible. It was a figure that looked like a broad shouldered man with glowing lightning around his body.

Adrien clenched his fists and turned to the soldiers in the room. "Lock down all entry points. Get defense teams in position on the roof and power up the internal shields. If those things want to reach us we need to shoot it from a distance first."

The monitors flickered again. More thunder flashes in the clouds. The sound of the thunder becomes more frequent and shakes the walls.

The monitors flickered again, static crawling violently across the screens as thunder boomed outside. Then, through the distortion, the shape that had once seemed distant began to move closer.

At first, it was just a shadow behind the rain and lightning. But each pulse of lightning revealed more of it until the figure came into full view.

He drifted down slowly from the storm clouds. His entire body wreathed in blinding arcs of lightning and violent wind. The storm itself seemed to bend around him. Wind spiraling in unnatural patterns that followed his every movement.

No one in the control room could tell who—or what—it was. But somewhere in another world, Adrius had seen this being. The same figure also appeared over the skies of Qomore, where Sylmira and the royal soldiers were still bracing for battle.

Now, it was here. His presence flew through the clouds with the same overwhelming power.

He floated above the base. The lightning that surrounded him lashing out and crawling over his skin. His long hair whipped wildly in the wind, glowing with white and blue light. And through the drone’s shaky lens they could see that he looked almost human, but not entirely. He was bare-chested, his body sculpted and luminous. His eyes burning with the same color as the storm.

Static broke through the comms again.

"Command, this is rooftop team. You’re going to want to hear this," the squad leader shouted through the radio, his voice nearly lost in the roaring wind. "We’ve got visual confirmation. There’s... there’s a man. No, I don’t think that is a man. He floating above the facility. He’s glowing! Lightning’s coming off his body!"

The operators in the surveillance room turned pale as they listened, glancing toward Adrien.

He didn’t answer right away. His eyes fixed on the screen where the figure hovered motionless in the air. The feed shook as another surge of lightning ripped across the sky, illuminating the entire area for a split second.

Adrien’s jaw tightened.

"That definitely is not just a man," he said. "It’s a Magical entity. He shouldn’t exist here."

Billy’s hand moved to his sidearm almost reflexively, though they both knew a pistol wouldn’t matter against something like that.

"You think it’s hostile?" he muttered.

Adrien exhaled slowly, his eyes still locked on the screen. "Everything about that says hostile, Brook."

He turned sharply toward the communications panel. "Tell the rooftop squads to hold their fire for now but stay ready. If it makes any sudden movement toward the facility, they’re cleared to engage with everything they have."

Jessica nodded and relayed the order, her voice shaking slightly.

The thunder outside rolled again. The monitors began to flicker harder, the feed struggling to stay connected as magnetic interference grew stronger.

Through the distortion, the glowing figure lifted one arm, and the clouds above seemed to react instantly.

Wind tore across the base and slammed against the outer walls, and every light in the control room flickered.

Adrien steadied himself, voice sharp and commanding. "All units stay alert! If this thing makes a move, we open fire!"

The glowing figure hovered silently above them, lightning coiling around his body.

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