After broadcasting evacuation warnings through loudspeakers for a while, the Corpus Mobile Unit commander finally gave up on reasoning with the crowd of civilians still loitering to watch the commotion.
Once all equipment and units were fully deployed, he lifted his head toward the vortex growing ever larger in the sky and shouted:
"Fire!"
The command had barely left his lips—
Whooosh! Whooosh! Whooosh!
A barrage of missiles streaked into the sky, trailing bright plumes behind them like fireworks. Each one moved at supersonic speed, aimed squarely at the swirling black mass above.
But as they neared their target, the intense gravitational field radiating from the vortex instantly warped their trajectories.
Even electronic guidance systems began failing—
the control panels lost contact as the missiles entered the unstable field.
Thankfully, this possibility had been anticipated.
Each missile had been preprogrammed with detonation timers based on estimated distances.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One after another, massive fireballs bloomed in the sky, painting it a dazzling orange-red—
like a fiery sunset set ablaze by war.
The shockwaves from the blasts shattered windows for blocks in every direction, and soldiers closest to the blast zone instantly suffered temporary hearing loss from the deafening roar.
But even as the vortex's swirling clouds were briefly scattered by the concussive force, the commander's stern expression didn't relax in the slightest.
He could still feel it, the core energy signature remained completely intact. And now, it was growing even stronger.
Just as he was about to order a second strike, a sudden surge of suction erupted from the vortex's center. The residual energy in the air was pulled inward, vanishing in an instant.
For a moment, the sky became eerily quiet, a vacuum zone formed, revealing the core of the vortex:
A pitch-black singularity the size of a small house.
CRACK—
A sharp sound echoed across the sky.
Under the gaze of thousands, the singularity fractured,
splintering into countless shards.
From the center of the break, a black hole opened—
as if reality itself had been torn apart.
And then they began to emerge.
One by one, dozens of figures surged from the tear before it even stabilized—
clearly in a hurry.
And rightly so, seconds after they escaped, the rift began sealing itself, vanishing entirely.
The first figure out, a mantis-faced humanoid, grumbled irritably:
"Tch… lucky that explosion destabilized the vortex. We almost got stuck in transit."
He took a deep breath of the air around him. A twisted look of ecstasy washed across his face:
"So many weaklings... what a delightful aroma."
An invisible wave of malevolent intent swept across the battlefield.
Every soldier—whether standing outside or inside vehicles—felt a cold shiver crawl down their spines.
The commander didn't hesitate for a second:
"ALL UNITS—FIRE AT WILL!!"
Ratatatatata!!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Like a torrential downpour, every form of firepower imaginable was unleashed.
Missiles, bombs, gunfire.
all of it surged toward the intruders, blanketing the sky in explosive light.
But one of the High-Rank demons merely sneered:
"How primitive."
No matter how foolish a demon might be, anyone strong enough to reach High Rank would have already absorbed immense knowledge through their bloodline, not to mention the countless souls they'd devoured over time.
Even if they weren't scholars, they carried the echoes of a thousand civilizations in their minds.
Truth be told, the average High-Rank demon—if judged purely on theoretical knowledge—could pass as a top-tier expert in a standard interstellar civilization.
Even if they couldn't innovate, they could plagiarize anything stored in their stolen memories.
And after skimming the battlefield, it was clear that this world's tech was primitive by comparison.
That demon chanted a short incantation. A massive lightning ring formed around him and expanded outward.
Within moments, it covered the entire cluster of demons and spread even further, almost a full kilometer in radius.
Every projectile that touched the ring—missiles, shells, bullets—was instantly detonated or rendered inert.
Electronics fried.
Warheads fizzled.
Those that exploded prematurely did little more than kick up dust against the demons' skin.
Stray shrapnel and heat?
Completely meaningless.
The soldiers and civilians watching—along with the global observers watching via satellite—were dumbstruck.
But the demons frowned slightly.
They could feel it: the pressure of this world's planar laws had suddenly intensified.
If it had been "1" before, it was now at least a "3."
Roughly 90% of their power was being suppressed.
That's the greatest drawback of entering a foreign world without a summoning anchor, with no invitation from local beings, the world's own awareness rejects intruders.
"Looks like we'll need to conduct a blood ritual to stabilize ourselves..."
They were just about to pull back and begin a sacrificial rite when—
something stirred.
A hidden force embedded within them came alive.
Their pupils flickered, strange sigils glowing within.
Their scaled skin shimmered as intricate markings surfaced—
the mark of the Deathblossom Curse.
That strange power took over without a sound.
It infused their bodies with a counterforce that pushed back against the world's suppression.
Almost instantly, their strength rebounded—
restoring about half their original power.
And just as silently as it had come, the force vanished.
Their consciousness returned, unaware that they had even blacked out.
No memory. No realization.
No visible trace.
All of this happened in under a second.
Even the native onlookers felt nothing strange.
Now sensing their restored strength, the demons smiled coldly.
"The suppression here isn't that bad. This world is weaker than we thought. A delightful surprise."
One of them reached out his tongue and lazily caught a stray piece of shrapnel, crunching it between jagged teeth.
Then, with disdainful eyes, he turned toward the reloading human soldiers.
"Let's slaughter them all first. They're in the way."
Before the others could respond, a wave of murky green mist began billowing from his body—
a toxic smog that expanded rapidly, swallowing everything around them like a creeping tide.
The real battle… had only just begun.
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