There was no warning. No tremor. No alarm.
Just pressure.
Like gravity had decided to pull harder.
My ears popped. The air buzzed with electromagnetic tension. The floor beneath me—one of the most stabilized labs in the world—shuddered like a leaf caught in a storm. Every cell in my body screamed that something was wrong. Objects rattled. A light fixture burst with a pop. One of the automated arms collapsed with a shriek of stressed titanium.
"KIRA, seismic data, now!" I shouted, gripping the edge of the steel counter.
KIRA's voice tightened. "No seismic event detected. The phenomenon is not ground-based. It's spatial."
Then I saw it.
The screens lining the perimeter of my lab flickered to life. Not through my command. But through an override—government channels breaking through AI protocols.
Red banners flashed across every surface.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ████ GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY BROADCAST ████ ┃
┃ ┃
┃ █ CODE: ASTRA-1 BLACK █ ┃
┃ ┃
┃ >>> MULTI-POINT SPACE RUPTURE DETECTED <<< ┃
┃ ┃
┃ [ PROXIMITY ALERT ] ┃
┃ ───────────────────── ┃
┃ LOCATION: OSAKA MEGAFRACTURE ZONE ┃
┃ DISTANCE: 14.7 KM FROM YOUR LOCATION ┃
┃ ┃
┃ !!! ALL CIVILIANS !!! ┃
┃ EVACUATE OR TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Before I could fully absorb the message, KIRA whispered:
"…Sam, it's not just Osaka. I'm detecting distortions in the mesosphere and ionosphere levels—globally. It's like... the planet's outer membrane is tearing."
My blood ran cold.
"What kind of force can tear atmospheric structure at once…?" I whispered.
KIRA pulsed. "Theoretical physics suggests only quantum rupture events could produce simultaneous intercontinental space anomalies. Multiple rifts across spacetime. No human precedent."
Then—another broadcast hijacked the screens. This time, media outlets.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ██████ BREAKING NEWS ██████ ┃
┃ ┃
┃ GLOBAL SPACE CRACKS IDENTIFIED — ┃
┃ JAPAN | US | BRAZIL | SIBERIA | MONGOLIA ┃
┃ ┃
┃ >>> OSAKA CENTER: RIFT VISIBLE FROM SPACE <<< ┃
┃ POSSIBLE DIMENSIONAL BREACH ┃
┃ ┃
┃ FOOTAGE INCOMING: ┃
┃ NON-HUMAN ENTITIES EMERGING ┃
┃ ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
The screen changed.
Grainy footage.
A jagged, black rift splitting the centre of Osaka like a stitched scar across the Earth. And then… they came.
Monsters.
Winged, snarling, moving wrong—like their limbs didn't follow the laws of biology. They poured from the tear like ants from a nest.
"KIRA. Call Dad. Now."
"Attempting... No connection."
"Try again. Repeat every 3 seconds."
My hands were already moving—grabbing the emergency containment case, shoving all twelve serums into foam compartments. I scooped vital chemicals, vials, nano kits, and injector pens. I secured the chamber with my full seven-stage biometric lock:
Palm print.
Retina scan.
Vocal command.
Oral DNA sample.
Retinal re-authentication.
Voice line password:
"From blood, we bloom—Twelve Genesis."
Second oral DNA confirmation.
Everything clicked into place with a final hiss.
I raced out, past the AIs who bowed silently in glowing white fonts on glass panels.
Welcome Back, Dr. Coer.
We trust your brilliance will guide us forward.
Only KIRA didn't bow. She buzzed on my wrist, defiant and amused. "Show-offs."
As I reached my car, my mind still couldn't grasp what I'd seen. Creatures breaching our dimension. The government sounding DEFCON-level alarms. My lab... possibly no longer safe.
And still—Dad hadn't answered.
I switched to manual call override. "Call Sera."
A long pause.
Static.
Then—
"Hello—Sam—sdfkjslf—hel—run—"
"Sera! Where are you?! Are you hurt?! Where's Dad?!"
"Run—Dad jhjht—ljlkhh—befvfhgvore—" fsssskkhhh.
No response.
My hands clenched the wheel as the city blurred past my windshield. Roads were jammed. People panicked. But I weaved between cars with near-surgical precision. KIRA managed traffic sensors, drones, and autopilots around me like a symphony of light and code.
I reached the house in just under thirty minutes.
I slammed the car door and sprinted toward the porch. I burst through the front door.
"Sera?! Rio?! Mom?!"
They were all there. Rio standing at the door with a kitchen knife, Sera holding a flashlight and a backpack, Mom just barely holding back tears.
But my father wasn't among them.
My breath hitched.
"Sam?" Mom stepped forward. "Where is your father?"
My stomach dropped.
"What do you mean? Didn't he… didn't he stay with you?"
She shook her head. Her voice trembled.
"As soon as he heard about the rift... he left. He said you might not be safe. He went to find you."
The room went dead silent.
A knot twisted in my chest.
"I—I was already on my way home…"
"Sam…" Sera stepped closer. "He never came back."
I slammed my fist against the wall.
That damn connection… I could've told him… I could've stopped him.
I turned to them.
"There's a basement, right? Under the house?"
Mom nodded.
"Get in. Lock the door. Bring food. Water. Tools. Don't open it for anyone. I know the override code. I'll come back for you."
Mom's eyes glistened. "Please come back safely, Sam."
I placed a hand on her shoulder. "I will."
Then I turned toward the rising smoke on the horizon.
But the real problem was that my lab was 7 kilometers away—deeper toward the core of the Osaka city crack. And my father had left in that direction over forty minutes ago.
Under normal traffic, the trip would take twenty minutes. But now? With cities crumbling, roads jammed, and monsters on the prowl, it could take much longer. He might already be lost inside that chaos.
I tapped the side of my wrist.
[KIRA: Online.]
"KIRA, initiate full thermal scan of Osaka. I need to find Dad. Face ID, movement pathing, drone feeds—whatever it takes."
╔═════════════╗
║ [ WARNING ] ║
╚═════════════╝
╔══════════════════════════════════╗
║ [ SECURITY ALERT ] ║
║ ║
║ Unauthorized request detected. ║
║ ║
║ Accessing military-grade satellite feeds is classified ║
║ under Japan Intersecurity Act Article 9. ║
║ ║
║ Attempting to bypass will trigger: ║
║ • Legal repercussions ║
║ • Immediate system lockdown ║
║ ╚════════════════════════════════════╝
"I don't care. Override it."
[Sam, your Cyber-Tech License is already flagged. If you override this barrier, you'll be permanently marked as a Class-B system violator.]
"I said override it. Dad's in there."
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ [ FINAL CONFIRMATION ] ║
║ ║
║ Attempt illegal access to ║
║ Governmental Surveillance System JGS-12-Ω? ║
║ ║
║ [ YES ] [ NO ] ║
╚════════════════════════════════╝
"Yes. Give me root shell access. I'll handle it."
╔════════════════════════╗
║ [ EMERGENCY ROOT CONSOLE ] ║
║ ║
║ Launching emergency root console… ║
║ Transferring full permissions… ║
║ ║
║ Good luck. ║
╚═════════════════════════╝
My fingers flew over the holographic terminal as a matrix of red warnings flashed in front of me. The interface fought back—protocol chains, RSA-512 security walls, scrambling code. But I was faster. I didn't build firewalls to obey them. I built them so I could break them.
I wrote a neural injection script on the fly, forged a relay path through an abandoned weather-monitoring node, and spoofed a military drone signature in real-time.
T-minus 57 seconds later—
╔═════════════╗
║ ACCESS GRANTED ║
╚═════════════╝
A high-definition satellite feed zoomed in on the streets near my lab. There—blinking between wrecked cars and monsters—Darian Coer. My father. Alive. Carrying a child, heading back toward the house with iron rod in hand.
[KIRA]: Target located. Thermal lock established. Route calculated.]
I didn't breathe. My chest ached from the tension.
"I'm coming, Dad."
I slammed the pedal. My high-tech car surged forward like a bullet, AI-guided suspension adapting in real-time to the rubble-strewn roads. I weaved through abandoned vehicles and shattered glass, past people fleeing in all directions.
Civilians screamed. Others were too wounded to move. Some—God bless them—were fighting back. But the air was thick with despair and smoke.
After 2 kilometers, I cut the engine. I could feel it—his presence.
And then… I saw him.
Darian Coer, former Special Forces legend, back in action—a pillar of steel among chaos. A military-grade, tungsten-forged iron rod clutched in one hand. A child tucked under the other. And surrounding him?
Hell itself.
As I ran toward him, my boots crushed the blood-soaked gravel. I could see it now—my father wasn't just holding his ground; he was controlling the battlefield.
A black-skinned goblin, nearly two meters tall, charged at him with a jagged bone-club in both hands, snarling like a beast. Its legs rippled with muscle, and its eyes were red with primal bloodlust.
But my father? He didn't move an inch.
His breath slowed—deep and centered, like a mountain unmoved by the wind.
He shifted his grip on the tactical iron rod—a Special Forces relic forged from dense, high-carbon alloy mixed with tungsten fibers, known in military circles as "Dragon Spine." It was designed not just to resist bending, but to amplify force through kinetic transfer—turning every swing into a bone-cracking hammer blow.
The goblin raised its club overhead.
In that instant, time slowed—at least, that's how it felt watching him.
Darian stepped half a pace to the left, just enough for the club to barely miss his shoulder. And then, in a move that felt more like poetry than violence, he rotated his body inward.
Boom.
The rod didn't swing like a weapon. It struck like thunder.
He pierced forward, using a form I'd only seen once—'Iron Needle Pierces Night,' a Murim-style technique adapted from ancient staff arts. The tip of the rod drilled through the goblin's right eye socket, shattering the frontal skull plate with precise internal acceleration. The monster's head burst like a melon.
It collapsed instantly.
One strike. Clean. Lethal.
I froze. Even KIRA's voice dimmed.
[KIRA: Vital signs of target "Darian Coer": Stable. Adrenaline peak—122%. Combat capacity—98%. Recommendation: Do not interfere.]
My voice cracked. "Dad…"
He turned to me, still holding the child.
"Sam? Damn it—I told you to stay back."
"I hacked a satellite; I wasn't going to sit around while you fought alone."
He grunted with a smirk.
"…Still reckless."
A shriek rang out—dozens of monsters skittering over overturned vehicles, leaping down from broken rooftops. A second wave.
"Can you run?" he asked.
"I can do better than that."
I threw him a shock grenade. He caught it mid-air, activated the pin with his thumb, and hurled it behind us. The explosion knocked the horde off balance—just enough time to escape.
We ducked into an alley, my KIRA navigating the route with 3D wireframes. The child clung to Darian, too shocked to cry.
"Dad," I panted, "that move you used—was it real Murim-style?"
"It's something my captain taught me before he died. Based on the 'Ten Movements of the Storm Rod.' Takes decades to master." He looked over his shoulder. "You just saw number four."
I stared at the blood still dripping from the rod.
KIRA's voice crackled in my ear, breaking through the noise.
"Murim's fiction, Sam. No supernatural energy detected. Martial arts? That's real. Focus on what you can actually fight with."
No time for doubt.
Just then, a monstrous shadow eclipsed the chaotic street—like nightfall swallowed the sun.
Before I could even register, a deafening crash shook the ground—my car was obliterated under a massive footfall. Metal screamed, glass shattered, sparks flew into the smoky air.
I glanced up.
An 18-foot-tall beast towered over us—thick, scaled black hide cracked like molten lava, eyes burning crimson, wielding a bone blade the size of a small building. Every breath it exhaled sent a hot, rancid wind swirling dust and debris.
The streets were pandemonium—screams, sirens, crumbling buildings, people running and falling under the weight of terror. Some fought desperately with what little weapons they had, others fled in blind panic. Blood splattered; bones cracked—chaos was a living thing.
And in the eye of the storm stood my father, Darian—unyielding, a mountain of calm fury.
He wielded his Dragon Spine iron rod—an unbendable, military-grade weapon forged for wars and legends. With a fierce battle cry, he met the beast's bone blade.
The impact shook the street. Concrete cracked; sparks flew like fireworks. The creature's strike thundered down like an earthquake—but my father didn't just block it—he deflected the blow with precision, sending it smashing into a ruined wall behind.
"Sam!" His voice cut through the chaos, a lifeline.
"Get out of here! Take the child! Now!"
I could see the strain in his eyes—he was holding back a storm beneath that iron calm.
"But Dad—"
"No time."
The beast roared, rage and malice pouring from its gaping maw. It swung again—this time faster, angrier, the sound like a freight train.
Darian danced back, every move a blur of strength and discipline honed through years of war. The street echoed with their brutal clash—metal on bone, earth shaking beneath them.
"Go!" he barked.
I grabbed the child, heart hammering like a war drum. The world narrowed to the pounding of my own breath and the distant screams.
Mounting my father's bike, I tore through the chaos, dodging rubble and terrified civilians, adrenaline scorching every nerve.
I'm not weak. I can't be.
Memories flashed—my father's battles, his sacrifices—burning into resolve.
He was protecting us—forging a path through the nightmare.
'I had to go back, I must go back.'