Ascenders Rift

The uproar within the Morning Star Empire was no different from the chaos shown in various other nations around Earth's Sector. Countless monsters spewed forth from different directions of the mountainous wilds, charging towards the nearby cities in tandem as they reached a vicious intent. Many of these monsters were already at Level 1, with even a few Level 2's amongst their ranks.

Wherever they went, it was inevitable that complete destruction was likely to follow, leaving behind seas of corpses and ruins. Still, unlike a few days earlier, at this time, there were more and more humans slowly working up the courage to rally together and face off against these dreaded monsters, each fighting their way through with the aid of the guns and other arsenals.

At this moment, a large group of skeletons with poor armor and weapons was making their way through the desecrated streets if a nearby town. They were led by a skeleton leader that was armed in finer gears with a bone sword on its back, it walked at the forefront with no direct thoughts to its actions. The broken cars and vans littered the road, hindering any form of travel by vehicle, forcing any surviving humans to hide or travel by foot.

One group of such humans were currently staring at the army of skeleton's ahead of them, as they hid behind walls of a nearby building. They each had a slightly worn-out look on their faces while they held different types of guns and weapons in their arms, a few of them trembling while their faces ran with sweat.

"M-Must, we really fight them?" One person whispered while his hand that held a shotgun shook.

The other's hearing this shook their heads as the leader of this group replied, "We don't have a choice now, do we? Plus, we must find ways to grow stronger, look at those guys from RADA, they crushed the entire army that had attacked Raventown just the other day. If we want to join them, we'll naturally have to go through their restrictions with the first being that must each arrive at Level 1."

A few others hearing this nodded, but the previous person who spoke added, "But... isn't that a bit too much? How can we face off against these monsters with just the standard issued military weapons? I've heard that those that were hand-selected by them were carefully trained by their experts, they were even gifted weapons of a similar caliber to that of the special military division. Since it is already like this, why don't we join the MSS instead? Their requirements are far less than what both the Kingdom Army and RADA are suggesting."

Some hear this couldn't help but show pondering expressions, but the leader of this group shook his head as he took out a tablet and turned the volume down to a minimal level as he spoke, "Because of this..."

As he spoke, the tablet shone, showing everyone a video of a recent report done by a female reporter who spoke, "With the rise of this sudden chaos, not only have we been forced to change our views of reality. The rising demands of Ascenders have risen due to the dangerous monsters that are continually escaping those termed as Lesser Spaces. Many different forces are those of the private sectors, Empire's Army, and the RADA association are in a bid to gather more and more personal into their ranks. With their recent public recruitment agreement, things might just be turning out for the better, however, though we've received reports that each of these sectors has agreed to work in tandem. The MSS has explicitly stated its intention of not confirming with any group, remaining as a private entity with its recruitment program. In a recent interview by the imperial government, no decision was yet made in response to their actions as Council Head Fredman has quoted, 'The council at this time will not be taking any actions to the MSS. Its current focus is to see to the betterhood of humanity with the RADA association,' As things stand, the council doesn't seem to have a good impression of the MSS's decision, and where this might lead is..."

The person seeing this showed a serious look as he nodded, a few others also made similar expressions, but while everybody had been distracted, the slight noise made by the tablet had attracted danger.

Bang! Suddenly, the wall in which one individual was standing beside exploded, sending chunks of concrete about the area that smashed into any nearby individual, crushing them apart.

"Argh! M-my leg, it's got my leg!"

"Help!"

Seeing the sudden change and hearing the cries of help from their companions, the bunch which had been distracted before showed dark looks on their faces as they reacted.

"Darn! How could these damn skeletons be so perceptive when they don't even have ears?" One person said while gritting their teeth.

The leader didn't want to waste time, he glared at the group and yelled, "Combat group get ready for battle, the rest of you should hurry and pick up those who've fallen!"

"Y-yes!" The ragtag group of humans said as they shakily aimed their weapons at the new entrance made by force, while a few others tried to pick up those who were injured.

There, they saw the very same group of skeletons that had been seemingly mindlessly patrolling the streets. If one looked at their front, they would notice that the skeleton leader now had blue flames in its eyes, as it stared at their group with a smug look on its face.

The group seeing this sudden had darker expressions, as they didn't think that they would encounter a monster which such an intelligent expression.

"Open fire!" The leader shouted as he didn't want to take any more chances.

Hearing his shout, everyone began to unleash a volley of bullets towards the skeleton. However, as if the leader predicted this, it merely smirked while tapping its head with its finger, making a 'no-no' gesture by waved its finger side to side.

The ordinary bullets fired by these standard edition rifles and machine guns only served to do surface damage to the skeleton's armors and had no effect on their bones, as they left sparks when they ricocheted.

"What? How can they not work?" Someone said in horror as he looked at the sparks and sneering face of the skeleton leader.

The others also grew pale expressions, the leader was about to suggest for everyone to retreat, but as if the skeleton leader saw this, it acted in a flashed.

Swoosh! In an instant, the head of the man flew about the air as it fell a few meters on the ground. His body was spewing out blood nonstop as it backed up and felt onto the ground with his arms and leg's shaking about wildly.

The skeleton leader seeing this, made a satisfied expression as it sheathed its bone blade before he glanced at everyone and snapped its fingers. Hearing this sound, the other skeletons that were still being fired at began to walk towards the trapped human's like lambs in a cage, ready to slaughter them all.

The person who spoke looked at the approaching death with fear as he thought, 'Is this where it ends? I... I don't want this...'

He was about to close his eyes, as he didn't want to see himself being killed. However, right at this moment, a shocking scene had occurred.

Piiii! Suddenly, a myriad of rays bolted down from the heavens as if God was bringing judgment onto the land. The skeleton leader looked at these rays in horror, wanting to move to avoid them, but sadly, not only were they fast, they were even more precise.

Puff! Instantly, all the skeletons surrounding the ragtag group had turned into bone ash as the dangerous scene had vanished in but an instant.

"This... what's going on?" One person asked in shock.

Everyone also had similar opinions, but as if answering their worries, a new scene occurred.

Suddenly, a few roaring sounds like that of a fighter jet's engine resounded as three machines descended from the sky. Looking at them clearly, one could see that they were three humanoid machines of a black color, with the leading machine having even more unique attachments and golden colored patterns.

"These... these are Mech Units, is this the Royal Army's Hawk Unit?" One person asked, but he soon shook off this thought as the Hawk Unit was known for a red design, these were black and had RDF on their surface.

As everyone was stunned by the scene, one of the doors opened, showing a man with dreadlocks wearing a pilot battle suit. He stepped down the machine and stared at them before speaking, "Are you all okay? Do you need any further help to get away from here?"

As the crowd heard this, they replied, "We... we can make it, but they can't..."

A person said as he pointed at their wounded companions, the man seeing this paused for a moment before he spoke, "I see, then we'll do it like this, everyone will mount the carrier, we are already on a field mission so will take you with us and give you treatment along the way."

The others hearing this showed thankful expressions as they made replies of gratitude. One person, however, looked at the man and spoke, "Thank you for saving us sir, but might I ask which group you belong to? I've never heard of a division like yours in the military."

The man hearing this smirked as he put on back his helmet and went towards his mech while he replied, "Call me Reaper, I am the commander of this Reaper Unit, a division on the MSS's Rift Defense Force."

When they heard Reaper's words, they each looked at him in shock, but before anything else could be said, a large airship had descended from the sky. It was also of dark color with RDF written on its surface; many other Reaper Unit mechs were flying around it in a joint formation showing a grand sight to all who witnessed it.

The people who saw this looked at the scene with passionate eyes, as their thoughts wandered towards a particular direction, one that might just open a new path to their already ruined world.

***

Far away from the previous scene, within a location that seemed no different from hell itself. A horde of man-eating beasts, dozens of meters large were being decimated one by one by a peculiar group of three.

A man with a mohawk jumped into the air, causing a giant spiky hammer to appear in his hands that smashed onto the ground creating a massive crater for a few dozen meters, crushing anything that was within its path.

As he did this, a few shadows blurred an appeared at his side looking no different from ghostly devils, they were cheetahs that were five times the average size with sinister teeth and eyes, even their foreheads had a shining crystal.

The instant these speedy monsters were about to bite down on the mohawk man; a different shadow appeared amongst their ranks, one that seemed humanized, before they could even react the shadow vanished and appeared behind the mohawk man as if formed into a slender girl who wore a mask, and held two bloody daggers, her presence almost fleeting.

The cheetah's felt a wave of danger, but before they knew it, their bodies began to fall apart in chunks of organ and meat.

Nearby this powerful duo, a cloud of black smoke faded, revealing a skinny man with a needle in his palms and mask with a skull design over his face. The needle dripped with a black liquid that left traces of black corrosion marks as it fell onto the ground, around him were many different dried up bodies of beasts that seemed to have been eroded.

As this trio had just finished off their enemies, a white-haired man had appeared in full white-uniformed with a similar colored mask over his face. His eyes swept across the group before he investigated the distance and spoke, "Let's go,"

Following his words, he didn't even wait for the trio's reply and vanished like a streak of white light towards the distant woods.

Thorkel seeing this snorted as he spoke, "Hmph! This arrogant bastard acting as if he owns us, I'll get him someday..."

Ruth, who had put away her daggers sneered as she rapidly followed after Zero as her words trailed behind her, "Thorkel, you don't think your better than him now, do you? Let's stop wasting time; we have to clear this space before the deadline."

"Che! Fine..." Thorkel replied with a shrug as he followed along.

"...." Baldwin only looked at the two in silence as he moved like a silent specter.

The trio was about to near Zero's location, but suddenly, their communicators went off, causing them to look at a watch on their wrist. There, they saw a detailed series of reports about a recent occurrence.

After reading for a while, the silent Baldwin spoke with a smile, "RDF... interesting name, huhu... these MSS's fools never cease to amaze me, I wonder when the leader will make us take action against them?"

Ruth giggled as she heard his words, she licked her lips and spoke, "Oh, what's the occasion, Baldwin, I didn't know you were one for such things, always so gloomy and silent."

"Chaos is the only fun that soothes my boredom..." Baldwin replied with a dark smile.

Ruth looked at him and shook her head before she replied, "I must say you have the weirdest definition of fun pal, but I must warn you the MSS is, even more, stranger now compared to past reports. I don't need to tell you what would happen even if our team attacks them directly, now do I? Leave the decision making to those old coots in the higher-ups. As for you wanting chaos, I'm pretty sure that where we're going, we'll get all the chaos you need..."

Following her words, both Thorkel and Baldwin remained silent as they gazed before them in the nearing distance. There, they saw Zero standing before a portal, a massive gate that was many times the size shown to Evan and the others, this rift glowed in blackish reddish lights and was spewing out an endless number of man-eating monsters.

Zero saw that the group had arrived, he paid them no mind, nor did he the notification on his watch, his dead-looking eyes shining in a strange gleam behind his masked as he stared at the portal and spoke, "It's time... we mustn't fail this mission."

Thorkel, Baldwin, and Ruth remained silent, as they soon followed behind Zero, their figures being enveloped by the dark lights as they entered a dark and mysterious world.