"Excuse me ma'am? But I didn't know almost everything about Battleground?"
"Yes, indeed. But it is outside of our authority regarding the informations about Battleground itself. As a candidate of player you can receive the related information by communicating with ANIMA in the interface lobby of Battleground sir."
"Ah, is that so…"
Rayn could only swallow and nod in understanding.
"Then, please follow me. One of us will guide you to the Trial Pod."
Rayn turned back to face Vaerdian. He took a breath and awkwardly extended his hand for a handshake.
The Vaerdian was a little surprised, but his expression softened into a proud grin as he shook Rayn's hand.
"Nice to meet you, young man."
Rayn smiled in response.
And then turned back to follow the receptionist to the back of one of the corridors.
The two of them were seen talking as if asking and answering each other under the dim light of the corridor.
Lobby - 10 minutes later.
The Vaerdian stood alone now, watching a hologram displaying all forms of the earth's scenery like a rainbow of changing lights.
He glanced past the pictures - past the windows and the giant transparent domes that enveloped Earth's skyline.
You can see scattered clouds, the land and mountains are still green, the sea stretches out like a blue painting.
But behind that, no one expected this to happen so easily.
The clouds parted. Rumbling covered the earth. The biggest shadow exceeds the alien arrival fleet.
And the world broke apart.
A high-pitched voice screamed loudly throughout the facility. The lights turned red. A large screen lit up, flashing the phrase: ALERT - DIMENSIONAL RIFT DETECTED.
Emergency sirens howl throughout the cities of the earth.
The receptionist who had just returned gasped. The crowd in the lobby froze as the projector above them displayed a brief clip of the sky being torn apart in time—black, fractal-edged, and like a pulsing wound.
"No…" someone whispered resignedly.
"That's a Rift. That's a fucking Rift..."
On the screen, something huge - an immense existence - was moving beyond the rift.
A giant worm-like form, filled with spines and unidentified crystals.
"Ah, we're doomed."
"They finally came for us…"
"Why aren't the Vaerdians doing anything!?"
Some cursed, some resigned themselves to this ordeal, some complained about this bitter reality.
The Vaerdian could only stand still.
His large fingers were clenched tightly at his sides.
He knows what it is.
He had seen it once—long ago, far from here—on a moon satellite that no longer existed. That shape, that crack… it was a signal of something beyond what a player could perceive.
It wasn't a battle.
It was a massacre.
He had hoped he would never see that again.
He stepped forward slowly, ignoring the still-frightened residents. The lobby was empty of anyone. Most of the Vaerdians had disappeared, summoned to military service since the alarm sounded.
But he still stayed.
He remembered the young man from earlier – a human, apparently without an Exoform, whose hand probably still held the feeling of that handshake.
The Battleground is where dreams come true.
Even for such as his kind.
But now… now this land will be a grave for them.
He glanced once more at the screen. The rift was widening. Atmospheric distortion was touching the edge of the sky's dome. Earth would soon feel its devastating effects.
"So… it's begun huh. That unpredictable fate."
He exhaled slowly, and his armor slowly changed.
Ancient runes shone across his breastplate—symbols forbidden even by the Vaerdian Elders. A hidden spell with an ancient epithet.
Epoch Breaker.
It no longer meant much to him. Just a curse disguised as hope. A mask he wore when he survived while others didn't.
But…
He turned and walked off the outer platform - toward the launch gate that connected to the facilities in the descent zone from orbit.
"Once again…"
"Give me strength."
That day…
A rift split the earth's sky.
Countless heroes fell – Vaerdians, humans, and other figures from beyond – facing Earth's greatest threat since the Day of Contact.
Meanwhile elsewhere, unaware of what is happening, a young man named Rayn enters the first encounter of the Battleground, and the system once again welcomes a new Epoch Breaker.