"When creation begins to tear itself apart, loyalty becomes the last weapon left."
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Old Allies, Unfinished Wars
Location: Subic Myth-Tech Command Annex, The President's Office
The line connected without formalities.
"You sound tired," the President of the United States remarked.
Esperanza Sinukuan exhaled softly. "You always notice that first."
A brief pause ensued.
"Thank you," she replied. "For sending Samuel."
"I figured you'd need him," he responded. "And I surmised you wouldn't ask unless the situation was dire."
"I truly appreciate the support," Sinukuan said.
"You often forget that I have your back. I suppose you remain the same Esperanza I knew from our days in the same special operations unit," he replied.
"They still took the Kusanagi," Esperanza sighed.
"I know," he answered gently. "The Anino ng mga Anito has become more formidable than ever. We must enhance our efforts if we truly aim to neutralize this coalition of cosmic threats."
Another pause settled in.
"Your Sandata," he continued, "the reborn unit."
Sinukuan hesitated before responding.
"I've reviewed the recordings," he stated. "Fragmented. Chaotic. Yet sufficiently clear."
"They were tested," she added.
"And they didn't falter," he replied. "They adapted, supported one another, and made decisions under pressure that most veterans would hesitate to make."
A subtle pride emerged in her demeanor. "I know. They surpassed my expectations."
"Even mine," he affirmed. "Support them well, Esperanza. They may be our only hope."
Silence enveloped them, now heavier yet steady.
"For now," the President continued, "Samuel is all I can provide without tipping the world into chaos."
Sinukuan allowed a brief, humorless smile. "One man worth an army."
"More," he concurred. "And you know it."
"There are two remaining," she noted. "The final ingredients."
"Yes," he replied. "And if they fall… there won't be another call like this."
"They will be protected," Sinukuan stated resolutely. "No matter the cost."
"There is no one else the world can rely on but you," he asserted. "Our reality hangs in the balance."
Another quiet moment passed.
"Stay alive, Esperanza," he urged.
She did not hesitate. "You too."
The line went silent.
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When Gods Prepare for War
Location: Kasanaan - The Land of the Dead
The river did not flow.
It remembered.
Black water stretched infinitely, reflecting no sky but rather fragments of forgotten lives drifting beneath its surface like shattered constellations.
Pale lanterns floated without flame, demarcating the boundary between waiting and oblivion.
Sybill Lucero sat on the riverbank, her boots half-submerged. Kandila ng Dilim rested beside her, its black flame dormant yet vigilant.
Dian Alintana sat opposite her, calm as the still horizon. She played with the threads of the Sinulid ng Kapalaran like guitar strings.
"He's still moving," Dian finally remarked.
Sybill's gaze remained fixed on the river. "The other Gregorio."
"Yes." Dian's eyes followed the void currents beneath the surface. "Traversing the corridors between realities. The void bends around him now. He is near."
"How near?", Sybill asked.
"Close enough that Kasanaan can sense his presence.", Dian answered
Sybill's jaw tightened. "So it's inevitable."
Dian nodded. "His arrival always is.
Preparation is the only variable left."
A sound pierced the stillness.
Oars.
The river parted as a narrow boat emerged from the darkness. The ferryman, faceless beneath his hood, moved with ritual precision.
A solitary passenger stood as the boat touched shore.
Sybill turned.
The emblem on his chest was unmistakable.
Ahas ng mga Lakan.
"How did you get here!?" Sybill growled.
Kandila ng Dilim ignited.
Black fire spiraled upward, the relic morphing into a blade of living shadow. The river recoiled as if in fear.
Dian raised a hand. "Stand down, bes."
Sybill remained motionless. "He's an enforcer."
"He's an ally," Dian replied evenly.
The fire flickered.
Sybill lowered the blade, though the darkness did not entirely dissipate.
She confronted the man. "So you work for them?"
Maximo Imperial exhaled once.
He did not respond.
Dian gestured toward the distant citadel where the God of Death observed. "Come. Sitan is waiting."
They walked.
The throne hall of Kasanaan loomed vast and hollow. At its center sat Sitan, his Sandata carved from shadow and judgment.
Laon and Mandayog stood silently at his sides, ancient and fully recovered.
Maximo stepped forward.
He knelt.
"The Anino ng mga Anito have secured three," he stated. "Three of the five ingredients for the Ritual that Commands Creation."
"The nations guarding the Dragon Seal and Garuda Wings now lie in fear," Maximo added.
The hall darkened.
Sitan's fingers tightened around the arm of his throne. The Palakol ng Kasanaan howled with the souls of the dead.
Laon's expression hardened. Mandayog's breath caught.
Silence stretched… heavy and dangerous.
Then Sitan spoke.
"Then the age of silence ends."
His eyes burned like dying stars.
"It is time for the Gods to intervene."
"Bathala will not be pleased with this decision," Dian remarked.
"I am certain he will agree with restoring balance to the Cosmos, especially as his creations are being misused," Sitan replied.
"Bathala's perspective has always differed from ours. However, we stand with you in restoring balance to the multi-realities," Laon asserted.
Mandayog stood and placed the Apoy ng Digmaan (Mandayog's War Spear) across his shoulders, turning toward the massive citadel doors.
Laon followed suit. Her Sinag ng Malaon (Laon's Sandata - radiant crown relic) surged with sunrays, preparing to deliver divine justice.
Dian did the same, stretching the Sinulid ng Kapalaran with her fingers.
Maximo and Sybill joined, their Sandata poised for war.
Sitan stood last, resting the Palakol ng Kasanaan on his shoulders. The spirits of the dead howled louder, echoing a war cry.
The torches of Kasanaan extinguished simultaneously.
Blackness enveloped the throne hall.
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Storm of Breaches
Location: Various Locations Around the World
A week after the Anino ng mga Anito captured the Kusanagi, the world began to behave strangely.
The veil between reality and the spirit world grew thinner than ever before.
Spirit Breaches multiplied, some tearing open simultaneously while others occurred mere seconds apart, like pressure points succumbing to unseen strain.
It felt as if they heralded the arrival of a terrifying omni-force.
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New York
The breach tore open above the Hudson like a vertical wound.
A spiraling rupture split the night sky between skyscrapers, its edges glowing a sickly white-blue as Echoes poured out in screaming waves.
Skeletal silhouettes fell like rain, shattering against glass towers and reforming mid-descent.
Bridges transformed into killing fields.
Echoes flooded the Brooklyn Bridge, phasing through stalled vehicles and dragging commuters into the mist with their anguished screams. Every helpless victim fed the swarm.
They surged toward Manhattan, reflections of a thousand forgotten deaths fueled by rage and unanswered prayers rippling across the water.
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London
The sky ruptured above the Thames. The Spirit Breach hovered low, almost reverent, casting distorted reflections over Parliament and the riverbanks.
Echoes emerged silently at first, thin, drifting shapes, before accelerating into predatory swarms.
Stone bridges buckled beneath their weight.
Echoes inundated underground entrances, pouring into the Tube like mist forced through cracks. Entire stations succumbed to darkness in mere seconds.
A Royal Guard unit attempted a defensive perimeter near Westminster.
They were overwhelmed.
Security feeds revealed men firing into shadows that remembered how to kill, silhouettes phasing through armor, claws tearing without resistance.
The breach pulsed brighter with each scream.
London vanished beneath a rolling pall of spectral light.
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Seoul
The breach opened above the Han River. It was wide, violent, and unstable.
Echoes cascaded downward in dense clusters, striking the water and crawling across its surface like insects defying gravity.
Bridges collapsed as spectral masses surged across them, vehicles tumbling into the river below.
Military drones detonated upon contact.
It did not deter the swarm.
The Echoes adapted instantly. Their movements became tighter, faster, using smoke and shadows between high-rises.
Streets devolved into narrow corridors of slaughter.
A full battalion was consumed near Yeouido.
Communications cut mid-command.
The breach expanded.
Seoul burned beneath a sky that no longer belonged to it.
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Dubai
The breach tore open above the desert outskirts, spiraling against a cloudless night.
Echoes emerged blazing hot, heat distortion rippling around their forms.
Sandstorms erupted instantly, driven by the breach's rotation, burying roads and buildings within moments.
Skyscrapers became silhouettes against swirling ash.
Echoes flowed through the avenues like flood.
Refugees fleeing into the desert vanished as Echoes rose from the dunes, screaming.
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Melbourne
The breach opened low and wide above the Yarra.
Echoes spilled forth in crawling waves, flooding alleyways and riverbanks first.
The city screamed.
Emergency shelters failed.
Echoes pressed inward, relentless, methodical, and savage.
The skyline dimmed as if the city itself were being erased from memory.
The river ran black.
Across the globe, it was not only the cities that burned under the same omen.
Different skies.
Different lands.
The same wound.
Somewhere beyond reality's edge, something was drawing closer.
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Low Earth Orbit
The planet rolled beneath the satellite in silent fire. From orbit, the storm was unmistakable.
Spirit Breaches tore open across the atmosphere. Vast spirals of warped light clawed through cloud cover, oceans, and continents. Each rupture pulsed like an exposed wound, bleeding Echo-light into the night side of the world.
Then the astronaut noticed something worse.
Above the planet... space itself was fracturing.
Spirit Breaches were forming in orbit. Not vast spirals like those below, but millions of compressed distortions. They were tiny, violent punctures scattered through the starfield, bending light inward like miniature black holes devoid of mass or gravity. Stars stretched. Then vanished. Reappeared incorrectly.
The astronaut's breath caught. "This… isn't possible," he whispered. He turned and tapped his partner's shoulder.
No response.
His partner floated rigid, visor fixed on the void. Reflected in the glass were the breaches—countless spirals opening and collapsing across space itself, as if the universe were being perforated from the outside.
Telemetry froze.
Star charts failed.
For a fraction of a second, several of the space breaches pulsed in unison.
And the astronaut understood.
The storm was not spreading outward from Earth.
It was closing in.
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Global Deployments
New York
The Spirit Breach split the night above the Hudson.
Amid the chaos, two arcane lights fell like stars from a C-130.
Gregorio Aguilar hit the asphalt first. Kamay ni Bathala flared, voidsteel bracers humming as reality buckled around his landing. Concrete disintegrated in a widening ring.
Tsubame Hayashi-Hime landed nearby in one fluid motion. The ground cratered. Deer Antlers could be seen through the smoke.
Gregorio immediately vanished in a Kisap Mata flash. He reappeared within the enemy line, matter tearing apart where his fists passed. Echo projections followed, radiant afterimages striking from all angles.
Echoes were ripped to shreds with each blow.
Tsubame followed up with a lightning-fast spear charge.
Echoes were launched in all directions.
She moved again, dashing through the crowd of Echoes like cavalry racing at the speed of light. She didn't need to swing her spear; her mere presence shattered their formation with the force of her speed and aura.
The skyline trembled as the breach widened.
They pressed forward without pausing.
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London
Sirens blared as the ward line shattered near the Thames. Two silhouettes leapt over the barricaded vehicles.
Renato Ramirez stepped into the surge, raising the Kalasag ni Bernardo in it's badge form. It transformed into an azure shield and expanded outward.
Echoes crashed against the spiritual wall like a tidal wave. They snarled and clawed their way toward Renato.
The Kalasag's aura shifted from azure to a prismatic hue. Its force violently burst outward, shattering the Echoes into fragments like glass.
Sutera Kencana slipped past his shoulder, holding the Keris in a reverse grip and darted through the horde. She moved like water, severing limbs as she flowed through.
A second wave hit harder.
Renato drove the Kalasag down. Multiple Wall of Giants rose in a semicircle, towering barriers sealing the street and funneling the enemy into a kill corridor.
Sutera vanished into moisture and emerged behind them.
The barriers closed.
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Dubai
Amidst the carnage, a crimson dimensional rift tore a vertical hole in the air. Two war gods entered the fray.
Agosto Santos charged through the horde, smiling, Kampilan ni Lam-ang resting across his shoulders. The blade's vortices ignited with crimson flame as he swung it in a circular motion.
The Echoes unfortunate enough to be in the blade's path were incinerated to ashes in an instant.
Ari Sujatmiko sprinted, his Tombak lowered and ready to pierce any Echo that dared to confront him.
The enemy swarmed.
Ari twirled his spear in spirals, cutting through the Echoes like grass before a lawnmower.
The street became a slaughterhouse.
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Seoul
Mist enveloped the plaza
Yoo Min Jun lurked within it.
The Echoes blindly charged into the fog.
Confusion reigned before invisible blades shredded them to pieces. Marian's eyes glared from within the mist as their shattered remains scattered across the ground.
Amid the thickness of the fog, Min Jun struck. A calligraphy of light traced through the Echoes' necks, limbs, and torsos as he executed a macabre dance of death.
The plaza vanished beneath rolling white.
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Melbourne
The harbor was overwhelmed by the swarm… until the Mei Hua Zhen rained from the heavens, piercing the ground surrounding the horde.
The needles glowed, and the Echoes imploded into oblivion.
Dr. Han Wei only appeared when none remained standing.
The rest charged in fury.
Countless golden arcs passed through them with no resistance. Only fragments of the Echoes reached Prasert.
The two advanced forward.
They did not look back.
Across the world, the Sandata ignited into action.