Shore had always considered himself a practical man.
Practicality was what had allowed ordinary humans to survive in a world increasingly dominated by monsters, gods and awakened. People who could bend reality through little more than thought and will. It was what had allowed organizations like LUCID to exist in the shadow of beings that could reduce cities to rubble or split mountains apart through the application of a sufficiently terrifying rune.
Practicality was also the reason he had properly introduced Raye to LUCID, after the entire Hybrid debacle, instead of leaving her to stumble blindly through a world that would happily dissect her.
The girl had adapted remarkably quickly. Truthfully, Shore had expected resistance and even confusion perhaps.
Fear certainly.
Instead, Raye had approached the entire process with the sort of grim determination usually found in career soldiers and terminal patients who had already accepted unpleasant truths about their own futures.
LUCID had performed every test they possessed upon her.
Blood analysis, genetic sequencing and even runic resonance scans.
Procedures that Shore himself had only learned existed after watching researchers wheel enough equipment into the room to invade a small country.
The results had been both encouraging and deeply concerning. The degeneration into a fully formed hybrid had stabilized.
More than that, the researchers had even managed to reverse portions of the process ever so slightly, peeling back fractions of the transformation that had already taken root inside her body.
Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended.
Aetherion had integrated itself directly into her DNA.
The distinction between integration and simple attachment mattered enormously. Removing it entirely would be less akin to curing an illness and more akin to attempting to remove someone's skeleton without inconveniencing the rest of their body.
It simply could not be done.
At least not with humanity's current level of technology. Truthfully, Raye had not seemed particularly upset by the news.
If anything, Shore suspected she was relieved.
The compound flowing through her veins granted her capabilities that ordinary humans could only dream of possessing and Shore had caught her staring at her own hands more than once with an expression that suggested she wasn't entirely certain whether she wanted to lose those abilities anymore.
What was positive about her entire experience was that she had taken to LUCID training with almost insulting ease. Most recruits spent years learning how to use the organization's equipment properly.
Raye had required days.
Her physical abilities already surpassed what most operatives could hope to achieve naturally and the only thing she had truly lacked was familiarity with procedure, tactics and technology.
Shore had eventually ended up acting as a mentor of sorts, taking her along on simpler assignments while showing her how LUCID operated beneath the polished surface.
If he was being honest with himself, the training period had probably been unnecessary. She had simply appreciated having something to do.
Then, the world had changed and the public revelation of awakened came to light.
The unveiling of LUCID.
Martial law.
Sleepless.
Supreme Runes.
Every week had somehow managed to become stranger than the previous one until Shore had genuinely started missing the days when he had to go infiltrate areas where things like rogue hybrids trying to eat people had qualified as an unusually stressful Tuesday.
Consequently, operations had slowed down.
Too much uncertainty and too much political maneuvering which meant that there were too many people attempting to understand what the world had become.
Shore and Raye had found themselves placed on a temporary hiatus while governments and organizations scrambled to maintain some semblance of order.
Ironically, that was what had led them to the small eatery in central Vale. For perhaps the first time in weeks, things had almost felt normal.
Outside, evening sunlight had filtered through the windows.
People had laughed and even had conversations with other about the new information that they had all been made aware of. While it was true that people were stressed and afraid, talk had still filled the room.
For a little while, the world had almost pretended that it wasn't standing on the edge of extinction.
Then reality had split open.
Shore remembered the hum first. A vibration that seemed to resonate inside his bones rather than his ears.
The sensation had reminded him uncomfortably of standing too close to heavy machinery, except there had been no source for it.
Then came the feeling of pressure.
Against reality itself.
The entire restaurant had fallen silent.
Every person inside had looked upward simultaneously despite the fact there was nothing above them except a ceiling.
Then the world changed.
Shore and Raye had burst out of the restaurant moments later.
Vale was unrecognizable. The evening sun still hung in the sky but it no longer illuminated the city.
Covering it was a broken crimson moon that it seemed to dominate the heavens entirely, its fractured surface stretching and casting the world beneath it into blood-red twilight eclipse
The sunlight itself had become crimson, the streets had become crimson and even the shadows had seemingly become crimson.
It felt less like nightfall and more like reality itself had started bleeding.
Then the Grimm arrived.
From forests, distant wilderness and thin air.
They simply appeared.
As though the barriers separating the Dream Realm and reality had shattered completely and allowed monsters to spill through the cracks.
The apocalypse had begun.
Fortunately, humanity had not been entirely caught sleeping.
Martial law had already transformed cities into fortresses waiting for an invasion they had hoped would never arrive.
Soldiers occupied streets and armored vehicles guarded intersections. Prepared defensive positions already existed.
Gunfire erupted almost immediately and explosions followed. Yet preparation and survival were not synonymous things.
People screamed as grimm emerged from alleyways. Cars crashed into each other. Entire crowds began stampeding through the streets in blind panic.
Shore had been carrying his gauntlet.
Experience had taught him that emergencies rarely announced themselves politely beforehand and so the weapon remained close to him at all times. He had assumed that with the announcement of the end of the world, the habit would eventually justify itself.
Today it finally had.
Raye had also picked up the habit from him. Unlike Shore however, she possessed advantages he did not.
Her hybrid abilities allowed her to render equipment invisible and consequently her own gauntlet remained hidden beneath perception until she wished otherwise.
The same applied to her new sleek LUCID issue katana strapped invisibly to her back.
Shore spotted the Beowolf first. The Rank Zero Grimm had already launched itself toward a crying child standing beside a collapsed woman.
His gauntlet snapped upward and a crack echoed through the street. The taser dart struck the creature mid leap and electricity exploded through its body, causing it to convulse violently before crashing into the pavement.
Shore's eyes flicked toward the child and his expression tightened. The little girl was kneeling beside, someone who was likely her mother or some other close relative. Or rather, beside what remained of her.
Blood stained the pavement beneath her. The woman's torso had been opened by claws and every breath came out wet and ragged.
Yet despite that she still managed to raise a trembling hand toward her daughter's face.
Shore felt his stomach twist.
"Raye!"
She moved instantly.
The Beowolf recovered from the stun just as she arrived and its claws collided against her katana in a shower of sparks. Raye twisted beneath the strike before grabbing the child and throwing her upward into the air.
The motion looked absurd and the child rose several meters skyward while Raye rolled beneath another swipe from the Grimm.
Another taser bolt struck and the Beowolf convulsed again. Raye's blade flashed once and the creature's head hit the ground.
Moments later she caught the child in the same motion without breaking stride. Only someone possessing physical capabilities approaching an awakened with a Body statistic of 5 could have performed such a thing.
Superhuman.
Distinctly and undeniably superhuman. Shore reached her side moments later.
"We need to move the civilians to the shelters."
Raye glanced around.
Soldiers were firing in disciplined volleys farther down the street while Grimm bodies piled around defensive positions.
She nodded.
Then the child looked up at her.
"Mommy..."
Tiny fingers grabbed the front of her jacket.
"M-my mommy's hurt. Please save her, miss."
Raye froze. Shore saw the exact moment her eyes moved toward the woman lying on the pavement, and saw the realization hit.
The glassy stare and the stillness.
No breathing or movement.
Her mother was already gone.
Shore saw Raye completely at a loss for words. Then, came the screech from above. His instincts moved before his thoughts did.
Shore tackled Raye sideways.
A heartbeat later a runic crimson feather the size of a car slammed into the exact spot they had occupied. The explosion shattered asphalt and sent cracks racing across the street.
More feathers followed, striking cars, buildings, civilians and soldiers alike. Shore watched one armored vehicle split apart beneath the impact while a nearby squad disappeared beneath the detonation.
This... wasn't a battle, but a slaughter.
The Nevermore landed moments later.
The sheer impact toppled vehicles and shattered windows for half a block while the enormous bird unfolded wings large enough to shadow entire buildings.
Rank 1.
Shore swore.
"Shit."
His grip tightened around his gauntlet. He turned toward Raye.
"Rank 1. We have to move, now!"
Fortunately for them, the Nevermore ignored their existence entirely. Unfortunately, that was because it had found something better.
The giant Grimm lowered its head toward a nearby office building whose entrance had become a shelter for fleeing civilians.
Its beak tore into concrete and steel alike.
Inside, people screamed.
.
.
Raye's grip tightened around the little girl as she stared at the towering Nevermore tearing chunks out of the front of the building with methodical cruelty, each strike of its beak punching through concrete and steel as though the structure had been built from paper rather than reinforced modern architecture. Every impact sent debris raining onto the street below alongside screams that echoed through the blood-red evening.
"Shore, what do we do?" she asked, panic leaking into her voice despite her efforts to suppress it. "We have to help them!"
She took half a step forward before a hand caught her arm. Shore yanked her backwards with all his strength, hard enough that she almost lost her footing.
"We can't!"
The words came out harsher than he intended, but there was no room for softness.
"That thing is Rank One."
His eyes remained fixed on the gigantic bird as another peck punched through three floors of office space at once.
"Its body is practically invincible to us. Only proper military hardware or awakened can reliably hurt something like that. We don't have runes, anti-Grimm weaponry or even armor rated for that kind of fight."
Raye's expression twisted.
"But..."
"No, Raye!"
His voice came out sharper this time.
"Don't be stupid. We can't save them!"
The words tasted bitter, because he knew exactly what she was seeing. The people trapped in the building and the workers pressed against windows. The civilians trying desperately to flee deeper into the structure.
The terrified faces and the helplessness.
Shore hated it too.
But LUCID training existed for a reason. Knowing when not to fight was every bit as important as knowing when to pull the trigger. Before Raye could argue further, the sound of sonic booms rolled overhead.
Both of them looked upward instinctively.
Several fighter jets tore across the blood-red sky at incredible speed, contrails carving white scars through the crimson atmosphere as they crossed above Vale proper.
For a brief moment Shore felt relief. If the air force was coming in, it was possible that they could take care of flying beasts like this Nevermore.
Then, something enormous appeared behind them and the relief died instantly. The creature pursuing the aircraft dwarfed the jets chasing it.
It was massive.
No, massive wasn't the right word.
Titanic.
The Grimm resembled some grotesque fusion between wyvern and dragon, its wingspan stretching hundreds of meters across and its body easily rivaling a twenty-story building in size. Black armor-like bone scales covered its form while rivers of red runic light flowed beneath its skin like molten veins.
Shore had no idea what species of grimm that was, but he knew one thing immediately. It was a Rank Two.
The realization hit him like ice water.
The creature beat its wings once and the resulting shockwave exploded outward.
Air slammed into the street hard enough to launch people off their feet. Shore barely had time to react before he and Raye were thrown backwards across the pavement.
The little girl screamed and many cars rolled sideways.
Windows shattered and street signs bent. The pressure wave alone felt like standing next to an explosion. Even the Nevermore attacking the building stopped and turned its head skyward to watch its larger cousin pass overhead.
Predators recognized predators.
Then came another sound following close behind.
Rotor blades.
Dozens of them.
Military duocopters emerged from between the buildings, their twin rotors roaring as they swept through the streets at low altitude. Mounted gunners leaned from the sides of the aircraft, heavy machine guns already firing.
The Nevermore screeched as tracer rounds slammed into its body. The bullets penetrated but only barely.
Small wounds opened across its feathers but failed to dig deeply into the creature's flesh. Rank One Grimm bodies were simply too durable for standard ammunition to achieve meaningful damage.
But the attack accomplished something else. The Nevermore became angry and its attention shifted away from the building and toward the helicopters.
The gunners continued firing while the aircraft immediately banked away down the street. The Grimm launched itself after them and its gigantic wings spread wide before it shot into the air in pursuit of the retreating duocopters.
Shore watched the aerial chase disappear between the skyscrapers. A few moments later distant gunfire erupted once more, then explosions and then more gunfire.
The city sounded like a warzone.
Because it was one.
Shore immediately moved.
"Now. This is our chance."
He pointed toward the damaged building.
"We get whoever survived out of there and move everyone to the nearest shelter before something else arrives."
Because something else always arrived. The Grimm were probably endless. Shore could hear it all around them. Explosions in the distance and automatic weapons firing.
The screams of civilians, the roar of monsters.
Vale wasn't fighting a battle but a war for survival. Raye looked down at the child in her arms before finally nodding.
Together they emerged from behind the overturned vehicle and sprinted toward the ruined building beneath the crimson light of the broken moon overhead while somewhere above the city, fighter jets and monsters battled across a sky that no longer belonged to humanity.