It was supposed to be a routine monitoring shift.

Sitting in the dimly lit interior of the armored surveillance van parked two miles outside the gate’s physical perimeter, technical operator Maya rubbed her bloodshot eyes.

She hadn’t slept for the last two days. Her desk was a mess of half-empty coffee cups and tangled cables.

She stared blankly at the wall of monitors displaying the stable, three-star energy signatures of the Loop Gate.

A sudden, involuntary shudder ran through her body.

Maya sighed, stretching her stiff arms over her head until her shoulders popped. That was her cue. How long had it been since she actually left this uncomfortable chair to even pee? Twelve hours?

"Eh, there is nothing abnormal here," Maya mumbled to herself, glancing at the steady green lines on the main scanner. "Maybe I will go have some me time."

She blushed slightly at her own thought, pushing her chair back and standing up. She grabbed her keycard and turned toward the back door of the van.

At that exact moment, a violent tremor shook the earth.

The shockwave hit the heavily armored van like a physical blow, violently tossing Maya off her feet. She crashed hard against the metal floor panels, her elbow colliding with a server rack.

"Ouch!" Maya winced, gripping her arm. "What the hell was that?"

Earthquakes were incredibly rare in this sector. The tremor only lasted for a few terrifying seconds, but the sheer intensity of it made the reinforced chassis of the van groan in protest.

She quickly pulled herself up, her heart hammering against her ribs, and looked out the reinforced window of the van.

Her eyes widened in absolute horror.

The earth outside was completely cracked. Massive fissures were tearing through the concrete and dirt, spreading like jagged spider webs in all directions.

And every single crack originated from the exact same point. The Gate.

"Oh, Shit," Maya breathed, her exhaustion instantly vanishing.

She scrambled back to her chair, her fingers flying across the control deck. The monitors, which had been displaying stable green lines just a minute ago, were now flashing violently in bright, aggressive red.

There was obviously something, fucking wrong with it.

She immediately slammed her hand on the emergency comms button, routing a direct call to the National Exterminator Agency headquarters.

"Command, report," a deep, professional male voice answered almost instantly.

Before he could even finish speaking, Maya stammered into the microphone.

"The... The gate just grew double in size!" Maya yelled, her eyes locked onto the external cameras. "And it’s changed its color. The portal is glowing deep blue. All the... the ambient mana readings have shot up to almost double what they were!"

"Calm down girl," the man on the other end ordered. "Take a deep breath and -."

"Fuck your deep breath. The gate..." Maya swallowed hard, her trembling hands hovering over the keyboard. "It shows the readings of a 4-Star gate for some reason."

...

Inside the gate, the world was ending.

Hide stood at the edge of the crater in the ruined amusement park, blood dripping steadily from his nose.

The earthquake hadn’t just shaken the ground; it had completely folded the earth.

Right before his eyes, the ruined city was tearing itself apart. The ground literally lifted into the air, stacking upon itself to form a massive, terrifying mountain of bedrock, twisted skyscrapers, and shattered roads right in the middle of the gate.

But that wasn’t the only thing.

The mana density had suddenly spiked to an agonizing degree. The air was so thick with wild, untamed energy that it felt like breathing underwater. Hide’s Endurance stat was working overtime just to keep him conscious.

Then, something very weird happened.

The shadows stretching across the amusement park began to violently warp. The gravity in their immediate vicinity shifted completely.

Hide looked up.

The massive, rusted ruins of the roller coaster tracks looming directly above them groaned. The steel supports snapped. Thousands of tons of jagged metal detached from the sky and began free-falling directly toward them.

There was no time to run.

Hide didn’t hesitate and called out his second phantom troupe.

"Hooter!" Hide roared.

The colossal shadow bird exploded out of the darkness in a violent eruption of violet flames. The phantom beast let out a metallic shriek, its massive obsidian wings kicking up a storm of dust.

Hide immediately jumped onto its back, gripping the mane of dense smoke.

"Up! Get Evelyn!" Hide commanded.

Hooter pushed off the cracked pavement just as the first massive piece of the roller coaster crashed into the ground. The shadow bird rocketed toward Evelyn, extending its massive, shadowy talons.

Evelyn barely had time to look up before the talons gently but firmly snatched her by the waist.

They shot straight up into the sky.

A second later, the entire structure of the roller coaster slammed into the plaza below them. The deafening crash sent a massive, suffocating dust cloud billowing hundreds of feet into the air, completely swallowing the crater where they had just been standing.

Hooter leveled out above the dust cloud.

Hide leaned over the side of the phantom and grabbed Evelyn’s hand, forcefully hauling her up onto the broad, shadowy back of the beast.

He helped her steady herself, and she sat heavily behind him, wrapping her hands tightly around his waist to keep from falling off the erratic, flying phantom.

Her face was incredibly pale, her eyes wide as she looked down at the sheer destruction below.

"Ughh..." Evelyn yelled over the rushing wind. "What the hell is this?! What is this thing?"

Hide ignored her question, he was not going to answer that.

Instead, he raised a hand and pointed straight ahead at the horizon.

"Look," Hide said, his voice grim.

Evelyn turned her head, following his finger. Her breath caught in her throat.

The physical boundary of the gate—the translucent, dome-like barrier that separated the area was completely shattering like thin glass.

Behind the broken barrier, more and more area could be visible. Showing more of the post apocalyptic city that they had been roaming.

And the another part was forcibly collapsing inward, violently merging with their original ruined city.