CHAPTER 76: MONSTERS OF THE APOCALYPSE

A few days later...

The glaring afternoon sun illuminated the world golden, spreading its shine across the alleys and corners of the quarantine zone.

The atmosphere inside the walls was harmonious, and most importantly safe. It didn’t last long though.

WOM! WOM!

The alarm sirens suddenly tore through the marrow of Fort Aegis.

This wasn’t the clipped tones of ration calls or the sharp cough of sleeping time. This was the long wail, a jagged blade of sound that shook through every street, every barrack, and every ration line with equal force.

"...!"

For a brief moment, time seemed to pause inside the quarantine zone as every single civilian paused what they were doing.

Traders who were in the process of counting money froze, children running and playing down the alleys froze.

The soldiers on patrol? Their heads quickly snapped to the wall.

Everyone knew what this meant... The Rift had come knocking again!

Ethan felt it before he heard it as his boots began thrumming with vibrations, his chest tightening as if the air itself had been sucked away from his lungs.

Then the walls of Fort Aegis answered with their own roar.

KABOOM!

The first roar was a supernova as the Rift cannon unleashed a hot violet beam that tore its way into the distance from the wall.

The Rift cannon is the biggest technological marvel of humanity since the apocalypse started as humans finally started integrating Rift energy into creating weapons. England’s Crown Ring researchers created the technological marvel.

4 months ago, in one of the most dangerous outfield missions ever, 15 powerful Awakened of Fort Aegis embarked on the trip to recover the Rift cannon.

And now, it was the wall’s most treacherous weapon of slaughter.

As soon as the Rift cannon unleashed its first payload, the wall-mounted turrets spun to life on the wall, their barrels swiveling toward the horizon in one synchronized motion, belts of ammunition rattling into place.

Inside the Fort, panic rippled through the civilians as they realized what was happening. Mothers pulled children close, men abandoned queues, and workers unceremoniously dropped their tools.

The market square collapsed into chaos as shouts layered over the endless siren but then the soldiers quickly arrived.

"Underground! Move!" They barked, rifles raised as they herded people into the old military bunkers beneath the fort.

Their presence was the only reason why the civilians didn’t break into a stampede due to panic.

The bunkers were relics from another war, now salvation pits for a city too fragile to face the dark head-on. They were also one of the reasons why the Supreme Commandant settled in this city and made it a quarantine zone.

Lines shoved toward the reinforced hatches. Some cried, some prayed, and others went silent, their faces masks of endurance.

They had gone through this same sequence countless times in the past. No one knew which one would be their last, but knowing they could not fight the beasts, the most they could do was to not get in the way of the soldiers, and hope.

Unlike the other civilians though, Ethan didn’t stay underground.

He climbed to a rooftop, his lungs burning with an urgency that he couldn’t name. He needed to see, he needed to know.

6 months ago, the apocalypse struck unexpectedly, and Ethan was forced to toughen up to survive with his ability.

After that traumatic experience, he didn’t want to keep on living such a dangerous life, so he opted to be a civilian. But now, due to recent changes with the Rift, Ethan was guessing that he may no longer have the luxury to stay idle.

From above, he saw the wall awaken.

The outer bastions unfolded like a war machine roused from slumber. The wall-mounted turrets soon roared to life as they stitched the horizon with bullets, glowing lines arcing through the dusk even as mortars spat flame.

From the parapets, squads of Awakened stood shoulder to shoulder, their abilities blooming into terrible shapes.

A Captain clad in obsidian armor swung his halberd, each strike releasing arcs of lightning that crackled across the swarm outside.

A Lieutenant with hands of frost sculpted a storm that rolled down the slope, freezing beasts mid-charge before shattering them with a gesture.

Fire, wind, steel, and stone mingled with the heavy percussion of artillery, singing a symphony of survival against the endless tide.

And then Ethan saw them... Holt and Jonas.

Both wore the crimson insignia of Captains now, their squads rallying around them like wolves around an Alpha.

Holt was precise as ever, his eyes narrowing at trails of dust, movements of soil, and shifts in the shadows.

"There! Burrowers incoming!" He barked, his rifle already snapping shots at ground-shaking tremors. His squad moved like extensions of his senses, cutting off ambushes before they breached the line.

Jonas was chaos given form. He led the charge atop the wall, his fists glowing with condensed force.

He roared as he slammed into a beast’s skull, breaking it open like clay. His squad followed his madness, wielding muscle and steel with reckless abandon.

For every monster that scaled the wall, Jonas met them head-on, laughing even as blood streaked his knuckles.

The beasts came like a living ocean.

Twisted wolves with blade teeth, winged horrors that screeched until glass shattered, crawling things with too many legs and mandibles gnashing. Their screeches mixed with the mechanical thunder of the wall until the very ground shivered beneath Fort Aegis.

The wall shook.

Civilians screamed beneath it, sealed in their bunkers. Soldiers on the line shouted orders, their voices cracking with exhaustion even as they obeyed.

Ethan gripped the edge of the rooftop, the Wheel faintly pulsing in his vision. His instincts screamed at him to act, to call upon improvisation, but the leash of civilian designation dragged like chains on his wrists.

Still, he watched. Still, he remembered every detail.

And then, the earth split.

BZZZ!

A D Rank horror emerged!

It rose like a mountain tearing free of its roots.

Black scales shimmered with Rift-light, each ridge bristling with bone spines. Its head was a jagged crown of horns, eyes burning with crimson hunger.

With one sweep of its tail, it smashed through barricades outside the wall, sending Awakened flying like broken dolls.

The fort shuddered under its roar.

Turrets bent their fire toward it, shells bursting across its scales in storms of smoke and sparks even as Awakened Captains leapt forward, their powers lashing at it; lightning, frost, and flame all crashing against its hide.

But the beast endured, slamming its body against the wall until the bastion groaned.

"Reinforce! Reinforce!" Came the orders, their voices desperate.

Jonas hurled himself into the fray, muscles swelling as his regeneration burned through his veins. He smashed into the beast’s claw, deflecting it long enough for Holt’s rifle squad to tear through its exposed flesh.

But it wasn’t enough.

The wall cracked, dust raining from its seams.

Soldiers faltered, civilians screamed in bunkers below, feeling the vibrations like death knocking on their ceiling.

And then the Supreme Commandant appeared... the leader of Fort Aegis.

He stood atop the bastion like a general carved from iron, his cloak whipping in the wind. His aura pressed outward like a storm front, D Rank.

His presence alone silenced panic for a heartbeat, soldiers and Awakened alike straightening under it.

"Hold the line!" His voice thundered. "Or this wall falls with us."

He lifted his weapon, a massive glaive rimmed with Rift-light. Then with one sweeping arc, he split the air itself, the shockwave hammering the D Rank beast and staggering it backward.

The clash became titanic as every strike of the Commandant’s glaive shook the wall, every roar of the monster rattling lungs inside the fort.

Soldiers redoubled their fire against the beast, Captains hurling their powers until their reserves bled dry.

The D Rank beast clawed, smashed, and screamed. But its wounds deepened, frost searing its scales, lightning tearing through its chest, Jonas’s brute strength breaking bone where no weapon could.

At last, with a final shriek, the monster retreated into the Rift-scorched wilderness, limping and bleeding as it refused to stay and die.

That was another development of the Rift monsters. The stronger they were, the more intelligent they became.

The tide of lesser beasts broke with it as soon as it retreated, scattered and slain until only silence remained.

Then, the sirens dimmed.

The turrets spun down, their barrels smoking as the air stank of blood, oil, and ash. Soldiers slumped where they stood, some cheering, some too tired to raise their voices.

Inside the fort, after receiving the signal, civilians finally emerged slowly from bunkers, their eyes wide with fear and awe.

Whispers filled the streets.

"Another D-Rank... how long until the wall breaks?"

Ethan remained on the rooftop, his fists clenched so tight his nails bit his palms. His eyes traced the smoke curling from the wall, the crimson trails where men had fallen, the Commandant’s silhouette vanishing into the fortress tower.

Six months ago, the wall had seemed eternal. Tonight, it looked mortal.

"How long can we hold this?" He whispered.

The Wheel pulsed in his vision, faint but insistent. Then, he willed it open.

~----~

[Status – Ethan Cole]

[Rank: E+]

[Improvisation Points: 11]

[Permanent Acquisitions:]

Kinetic Grapple Launcher (Tier 1).

Exo-Spike Gauntlet (Tier 1).

Shadowstep Dash (Tier 1).

[Note: System Observation Active.]

~----~

Ethan’s jaw tightened.

His reflection stared back at him in the faint glow of the Wheel. It was older than he remembered, his eyes harder and more mature.

If even Fort Aegis could tremble, then nowhere was safe.

And if nowhere was safe, then the Wheel was no longer just a tool.

It was a lifeline.