The Shadows of the Void
Huai looked at the young girl and patted her head. "Why wouldn't I? Didn't I already make a promise to meet you here?"
Qingqing still cried; she knew that Huai's words were genuine. They really had promised to meet here after sunrise.
At this time, the sun had already climbed into the sky. Huai suddenly looked at the horizon in horror. The huge rift that appeared on Earth in the year 2070 was getting bigger and bigger. He took Qingqing in his arms, trying to hide her.
Every being on Earth was alerted. Ten S-Rank hunters, many A-Rank hunters, and many more all came out of their dwellings. Everyone looked at the sky in horror.
The Association announced to the public not to panic. They were thinking about more profit, hoping that maybe this rift would make them even richer. The Association announced: "No hunter is allowed to interfere with the rift."
At this time, some of the hunters had already gathered in front of the rift. Olumide Adeyemi, the S-Rank hunter from Niriliya known as "The Beast King," said coldly toward the Association Tower, "Don't you look at that rift? Something is clearly trying to invade the Earth."
Olumide was already trying to stop the invasion when the Association announced that decree. Olumide's special power is called Soul Merging (he can temporarily take on the physical traits and powers of any monsters he has slayed), so his soul was already receiving an omen about this rift.
Not just him, but other S-Rank hunters were also anxious about the rift, so they all came with the intention of blocking it by any means. But now, the Association was forbidding them to interfere.
Ananya Sen, the S-Rank hunter from Tianzhu known as "The Solar Weaver," whose special power is Light Construction (using sunlight to weave physical weapons and shields that burn on contact), said: "I can also feel the darkness of the beings outside that rift. If we don't stop them now, it will be a disaster."
The other hunters also agreed with the statement. At this moment, the Association announced again: "Don't forget that you are just slaves of humanity. It is your duty to obey humanity and obey the Association's orders. Don't forget that the huge rift contains many resources that will make us humans more powerful, so stop doing unnecessary things and obey orders."
The whole place became silent. Liang Wei, the S-Rank hunter from Zhongguo known as "The Myriad Sage," with the power called Telekinetic Sword Array (commanding an arsenal of thousands of swords simultaneously), looked at the Association Tower and sighed. "I don't know why we are obeying them. If we let those things invade Earth, many people will die."
Kento Sato, the S-Rank hunter from Riben known as "The Dark Ghost," with the power called Techno Phasing (can enter electronic networks and create physical glitches in the real world), said with a face full of fear: "I can sense technology they bring far above every technology on Earth. Some of them even have an intelligence that even I can't invade."
Amira Hassan, the S-Rank hunter from Aiji known as the "Sand Queen," with the power Chronological Reversal (can rewind the state of objects or people by 10 seconds to heal or repair), said solemnly: "Time artifact! They even have a time artifact with them. I can sense the power of time from the rift."
Everyone knew how important Amira was to the team. If a time artifact came and she couldn't do anything about it, everything was gone. They couldn't win this war at all.
At this moment, Elena Volkov, the S-Rank hunter from Eluosi known as "Cold Heart," with the power known as Molecular Deceleration (can freeze time in a small area by stopping all molecular motion), said coldly: "Let's go stop those beings from interfering. We don't need to obey the Association always."
Park Ji-Hoon, the S-Rank hunter from Hanguo known as "The Gravity Anchor," with the power called Gravitational Domain (can increase the weight of objects by 100x or create zero-gravity zones), looked at Elena and said: "Yes, we don't need to always obey these fools who don't even know what's wrong with this rift."
Isabella Silva, the S-Rank hunter from Baxi known as "Siren," with the power called Vibrational Mastery (can shake mountains and planes by using frequency and move at the speed of light), said to the team: "I am absolutely okay with it. I don't like a single person from the Association."
Richard Williams, the S-Rank hunter from Meiguo known as "The Star-Spangled Tank," with the power called Kinetic Absorption (grows stronger and larger the more physical impact he absorbs), looked at them all and said with a sigh: "Although I don't like the idea of disobeying the Association, still, this time I can feel the impact this invasion is bringing toward Earth. So, I agree with you all."
The last S-Rank hunter from the Yingguo, Sir Alistor Thorne, known as the "Spatial Knight," with the power called Dimensional Fencing (can cut through space, ignoring armor and everything using his rapier), looked at the group and chuckled. "Ha ha ha... it doesn't matter what I do. If those beings come to Earth, I'll kill everyone until I die myself."
The group felt a connection between them. All of them knew what was going to happen if they didn't take action now. Ananya looked at everyone and, using her powers, created a huge solar radiance above the Earth to block the rift. Liang Wei used thousands of swords to seal off the rift gate so that if any creatures came to Earth, they would face those swords first. Elena tried to stop the flow of the rift using her powers to stop time around it.
Kento did an amazing thing. He took control of every mechanical device on Earth and announced: "People of Earth! We are facing a devastating invasion of extraterrestrial creatures that we don't know about. Do not leave your homes. Try to go into special bunkers in the Association if needed. Earth is facing its greatest enemy now. Stay safe."
Just by saying this, all the people on Earth knew the secret now. People started rushing toward the Association buildings near them.
At the Association headquarters, all high-level government members were watching the screen coldly. One head member said, "What are they doing? Didn't we already give them orders to do nothing?" Another one gritted his teeth and said, "Good, good. Wait until this phase is over; I'll personally put more shackles on those guys."
Another official said anxiously, "What are we going to do now? We didn't prepare any food for those foolish people. If they want to come to the prepared bunkers, we'll need to provide them with necessary supplies."
Another government member said, "Don't. Don't allow them to enter the bunkers. Announce that all the S-Rank hunters have defected from the government and are now prohibited from using their powers. Don't listen to those fools."
Everyone agreed, and a decision was made. An announcement went out to every human on Earth. People were confused. Why was the government banning the huge pillars of S-Rank hunters for sharing news? They were even more amazed that the Association didn't take any humans into the bunkers that were prepared with the people's money and resources. The Association denied entry to everyone. People's faces were solemn; they understood one thing: the Association was ignoring the common people while the S-Rank hunters tried to save them.
At the site of the hunters, everyone was ready to fight. After Kento Sato's announcement, many Awakeners from Rank A to F came to their support. Lu Sheng, an A-Rank, also arrived. With him stood his wife, Ye Lingxi, a B-Rank hunter.
Isabella looked at everyone and used her power to vibrate her voice to the crowd: "The Earth is facing its greatest demise since its birth. We all need to do our best to stop this war. Be ready; we can't stop that rift from tearing apart." Everyone looked at the rift with solemn eyes. Everyone was ready to intervene at any moment.
The Global Awakeners Association was also watching the scene with shimmering eyes. They were happy to see many Awakeners at the site. Even if they had to fight, the Association believed they would win, and every single resource would be theirs.
At the top of the hill, Huai was watching everything with solemn eyes while carrying Qingqing in his arms. Huai asked the system, "System, do you know what is happening with that huge rift?"
[Ding! Host, that rift was created by an extraterrestrial race of dark void creatures called Nether Wraiths. They are a super strong race from a different galaxy called the Nether Galaxy. Earth was covered by a layer of mist. Now the mist has vanished, and this galaxy has its eyes on Earth. They have already invaded many other planets in the Milky Way, and all of them are dead planets now. This time, they are invading Earth fully.]
Huai looked at the rift in surprise. An extraterrestrial race was invading, and Earth was facing its destruction. "Do you know what kind of Awakeners they are?"
[Ding! Host, Earth is special, so they awakened their special traits; they haven't even started cultivation yet. If they had more time to cultivate, Earth would have been a strong planet. But in the case of the Nether Wraiths, they are real cultivators. Those who come to invade Earth want to consume this power and gain it for themselves. Every high-ranking cultivator is coming to Earth this time. The highest level of cultivation among those coming is Galaxy Sovereign (Peak), and the lowest are in the Void Refinement realm. Any S-Rank hunter could fight those in the Void Refinement realm, but if they face a single being above that, they would die in a second.]
Huai sighed again and looked at the rift with complicated emotions. At this moment, Qingqing looked at Huai's tense face and asked, "Gege, are we going to die?"
Huai was surprised by the question, but he looked at her with a gentle smile and said, "No, Qingqing. No, we are safe this time." There was a sentence he didn't say: if he needed to take action for this invasion, he would do it. But if he did it now, he would die in only 15 minutes. He needed to do something so that Earth would have the power to protect itself after he was gone.
Evryone was tense at this moment,
The huge rift shakes again . The swords started shaking first they with a bang thousands of swords turn into dust by Spatial fluctuation . Liang wei looked at the rift in horror. This is the first time his power faced this kinda reaction. He was looking at ananya and Elena to look what they are doing ...
Ananya seeing that the swords allready turn into dust in front of their eyes looked at the rift and tried to stable the solar resonance shield that she created for the rift ...
Elena tried to stop the time of the rift with her best . With the power she have she stop the molecular particles around the rift and tried to stop the time of acceleration...
But to their surprise, none of them worked , the solar sheild breaks first and ananya faces a terrifying backlash by which she vomited blood ,kento came to her side to support her and caught her from behind while she was falling.
The same thing happened to Elena , Elena was trying to stop time around the rift but the rift shakes and elenas power interrupted by Spatial fluctuations of huge space rift , elenas nose started bleeding by the backlash and ji hoon caught her from behind before she falls ...
Everyone's face was solemn . These are the awakeners who are at the top of the earth but still they can't stop this rift ?
At everyone's horror the space rift opened, huge space ships emerged from the rift counting thousands in front their are 3 special spaceships guiding those 1000s of spaceship .
The whole earth filled with horror. A eerie aura filled the earth in every way. The gates of the spaceships opened .
Creatures started emerging from the spaceships all of them looked like human .with black horns on their heads , all of them wears black eerie cloths.the aura of netherworld lingering between their clothes. In front 3 beings stand alone looking at the people of earth...