Aside from their metallic basements and the Resonance Stones embedded deep beneath them, the floating cities all shared one more thing: an invisible wall encircling each island like a giant force field.
These force fields kept monsters out. But technology, no matter how advanced, was never enough to stop magic. Not to mention the corrupted kind that twisted creatures into abominations and rained chaos down onto Earth.
Normally, the force field stayed invisible. But once a high concentration of magic seeped near it, the entire barrier darkened, turning into a pitch-black veil. A city swallowed in that veil entered full lockdown.
Denying citizens light, movement, and escape.
It kept the monsters from spreading but also didn't protect the people trapped inside. But that definitely didn't mean the officials simply abandoned citizens to die. The system allowed special units in and out. The Island Defense Regiment, for example.
This, however, was worse than a lockdown. The darkness outside felt malevolent.
'So how the hell did something with a hand that big get in? Or is it outside? Whatever it is… I can sense the bastard everywhere. It's too big to be inside, which means it must be punching through the void outside the black veil. Ah, i can't really say.'
Scarlet frowned, tension crawling up his jaw.
He stared at the massive hole the unknown colossal abomination had torn through the ground. Bits of stone slid off the edge and clattered against metal far below in the basement, the echoes fading almost instantly.
"So… do we go in?" Mira asked, eyes narrowed as she studied the rupture.
Scarlet didn't answer at once. He paced back and forth, muttering under his breath before he finally stopped.
"No," he said. "We go back. Prepare for a different but related mission."
Mira blinked. "Huh?"
Scarlet crouched beside the hole and spoke as if forcing himself to admit something unpleasant.
"You see, most of my theories were wrong. First, I thought the flying abominations reacted to artificial sound only if it came from something alive. Turns out, they don't react to sound at all. They're deaf. I figured that out during our last run-in with one." He paused, then added: "They don't smell blood either, but sense it. It's a low-frequency psychic pulse created by the flow of lifeblood, a signal only the corrupted can pick up."
He picked up a pebble and flicked it into the darkness. The faint clang of metal echoed, then died.
"They respond to blood," he continued. "Remember when we met? That bird went for you not because you yelled, but because you were bleeding. It left me alone because… well… I'm special. In a weird way."
He sighed.
"And if there are survivors," Scarlet added quietly, "leaving them here to get dragged into the chasms below… I wouldn't be able to swallow that. It'd feel like a bone stuck in my throat."
'And wasting fresh blood? Over my dead body!'
"So what exactly are you planning?" Mira asked.
"It's simple," he said. "Simple, but hard. Traveling across the city without preparation is suicide. There are fifteen sectors full of abominations. We need transport and other resources I can't list off the top of my head."
Mira's brows pulled together. "Scarlet… what are you even talking about? We are now a rescue team? We can just go down there now, turn the force field off, and get out before the Resonance Stones die completely. We have parachutes back at the cinema, enough to float off the island and glide to the next one once this place collapses. Think straight, damn it!"
Scarlet turned to her slowly.
His expression was unreadable.
"If the Resonance Stones are dying or already dead, what do you think loses power first? The gravity stabilizers, Mira."
"But the field is still up!" Mira insisted.
"No, it's not," Scarlet said softly, crushing the pebble in his gloved hand. "The black veil you see? That's not the force field. That's true darkness coating over the city. The force field is powered by the Resonance Stones, and if the gravity is failing, the field is already dead. We are utterly exposed."
Mira froze.
Her eyes widened, horror creeping across her face as the realization hit.
"It can't be…"
****
Amidst the floating cybernetic islands, a silhouette sliced through the heavy atmosphere. It was a single-occupant interceptor, shaped like an eagle, known as the Sparrow, a seamless, matte-black delta wing that moved with impossible grace. Crafted from layered thermo-adaptive vibranium alloy, it absorbed light, possessing no visible panels or rivets.
Its propulsion was near-silent displacement. It didn't push itself forward so much as it folded the gravity field around it, leaving only a faint, shimmering heat signature in its wake as it approached a colossal, black-veiled island. The cockpit was a singular, teardrop-shaped canopy of fortified diamond glass, offering the pilot a full view of the chaos below.
The island was covered in a veil of darkness and just above it was a tear in reality itself. The clouds splitted forming some sort of sky chasms with grotesque monsters flying around it. Some trying to enter the veil of darkness and others going in and out of the chasm.
Just meters away from the Island Of Darkness was a makeshift island made of floating metal and glass. This makeshift military platform was secured by heavy magnetic anchors that pulsed with low power, ensuring its position relative to the main island. It was essentially a mobile command center, cobbled together from salvaged drone chassis and reinforced with temporary field-welded plating. On it were different people dressed as him. So were identical Sparrows.
He reached the platform as an invisible force field became visible for a split second. He entered and parked the Sparrow near the others.
Coming out of the Sparrow the pilot was welcomed by two soldiers: one with grey hair and rough skin, the other a female with blonde hair and milky eyes. Grim expressions on their faces.
The metal retracted and showed the pilot's face. He looked more like a teenager with silver hair, bright eye color, and pale skin. On his face was a mask of unreadable expression. Without sparing the soldiers a glance, he asked in a calm tone:
"Status?"
Without hesitation, the woman started:
"Captain, we've been waiting for you. The Resonance Stones are dead, and the island will soon plummet down. Now, we're still supporting it with little gravity force. After that—"
He interrupted and asked: "The force field?"
The two soldiers gritted their teeth and clenched their fists, respectively. In the end, the anger they tried to express failed as mixed emotions appeared in their eyes.
The young soldier didn't flinch, still waiting for a reply.
Finally, the old man answered him.
"The force field is down, sir. Completely. It died with the stones."
The young soldier stared at the island that was meters away and scowled, which disappeared almost immediately, shifting back to his calm expression.
"But it's black. That means the darkness is an Abomination. So that's the true scale of the threat."